New season, rejigged teams but the same old Sunrisers Hyderabad. The power-packed batting 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 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Sunday.
Lacklustre bowling and uninspired fielding meant the Royals began the match on the back foot and they could never recover from that. Skipper Riyan Parag opting to bowl first after winning the toss was always going to be a questionable decision, even without the benefit of hindsight, against SRH in its home ground.
AS IT HAPPENED – SRH vs RR
Abhishek Sharma gave the home side an explosive start, smacking Fazalhaq Farooqi for five boundaries in his opening spell before falling to Maheesh Theekshana.
With SRH crossing the 50-run mark in just four overs, Riyan Parag brought Jofra Archer into the attack. Travis Head, in trademark fashion, welcomed him by taking him to the cleaners, smashing four boundaries and a monstrous 106-meter six, much to the delight of the boisterous home crowd.
Head kept the fireworks going beyond the PowerPlay, bringing up his half-century in 21 balls. Tushar Deshpande, playing his first game after a long injury layoff, ended the Australian’s assault with a slower delivery.
The newly signed Ishan, who took the backseat till then, began to unleash along with Nitish Kumar Reddy. He pummelled Archer with back-to-back sixes to register a blistering half-century, off 25 balls, on his SRH debut.
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Travis Head plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 Twenty20 Championship cricket match between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Rajasthan Royals.
| Photo Credit:
KVS GIRI
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Travis Head plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 Twenty20 Championship cricket match between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Rajasthan Royals.
| Photo Credit:
KVS GIRI
Buoyed by the quickfire start, Ishan kept the runs flowing. In the penultimate over, he cleared deep-backward square leg and fine leg before notching up his maiden IPL century. The 287-run target, set with a boundary off the final ball, was daunting and the Royals stumbled right at the start.
Simarjeet Singh sent Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag packing in his first over to put further distance between the two teams, followed by Mohammed Shami sending Nitish Rana back to the pavilion.
However, Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel registered rapid half-centuries and stitched together a 111-run stand to keep the Royals in contention. Samson and Jurel both fell in the space of three balls, the former to Harshal Patel and the latter to Adam Zampa.
The Royals then found it difficult to keep up with the mounting run rate, despite Shubham Dubey and Shimron Hetmyer’s best efforts. In a ground that has traditionally favoured the chasing teams (1.235 W/L ratio in IPL), SRH bucked the trend to begin its IPL campaign on a victorious note.