New season, rejigged groups however the identical previous Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The power-packed battling lineup of SRH, headlined by Ishan Kishan’s unbeaten century, guided it to a 44-run win over Rajasthan Royals in its Indian Premier League (2025) season opener on the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium right here on Sunday.
Abhishek Sharma gave the house aspect an explosive begin, smacking Fazalhaq Farooqi for 5 boundaries in his opening spell earlier than falling to Maheesh Theekshana. With SRH crossing the 50-run mark in simply 4 overs, Riyan Parag introduced Jofra Archer into the assault.
Travis Head confirmed no mercy, smashing 4 boundaries and a monstrous 106-meter six, a lot to the delight of the boisterous dwelling crowd. He saved the fireworks going past the PowerPlay, bringing up his half-century in 21 balls. Tushar Deshpande, again after a protracted damage layoff, introduced the Australian’s assault to an finish within the tenth over.
The newly-signed Ishan then broke free with Nitish Kumar Reddy for firm. He pummelled Archer for back-to-back sixes to register a blistering half-century, off 25 balls.
Buoyed by the quickfire begin, the previous MI keeper-batter saved the runs flowing. In the penultimate over, he cleared the fence on both aspect of the wicket to notch up his maiden IPL ton.
The 287-run goal, set with a boundary off the ultimate ball, was daunting and the Royals stumbled proper initially. Simarjeet Singh despatched Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag packing in his first over to widen the space between the 2 groups. Mohammed Shami seeing off Nitish Rana again to the pavilion deepened Royals’ troubles.
Sanju Samson (66 off 37 balls) and Dhruv Jurel (70 off 35 balls) cast a courageous resistance with a 111-run stand for the fourth wicket. However, each fell within the house of three balls, the previous to Harshal Patel and the latter to Adam Zampa.
The Royals then discovered it troublesome to maintain up with the mounting run-rate, regardless of Shubham Dubey and Shimron Hetmyer’s finest efforts. In a floor that has historically favoured the chasing groups (1.235 W/L ratio in IPL), SRH bucked the pattern to start its marketing campaign on a victorious notice.
Published – March 23, 2025 09:16 pm IST
