The Tata IPL announced itself in no uncertain terms in only its second match this season as the Sunrisers Hyderabad won a run-fest which featured a monstrous combined total of 528 runs against the Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday.
Sunrisers, who lay claim to four of the five highest totals in the IPL, were at it again, scoring 286 for six in their innings after being put into bat, led by a magnificent unbeaten 106 in 47 balls from Ishan Kishan that included 11 fours and six sixes.
It was his debut knock with his new franchise and he couldn’t have announced himself with any more fanfare.
The Sunrisers’ score was the second highest total in the competition, just one run shy of the record they set themselves last year.
No wonder a number of their baying fans in the “Orange Army” carried posters demanding they beat the 300 mark – and who would bet against them eventually achieving that feat?
In reply, the Royals “only” scored 242 for six – losing the match by 44 runs – but the combined total of the two teams’ scores established one incontrovertible fact: the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium should be renamed Punishment Park – for bowlers.
An epic run-fest goes the way of @SunRisers 🧡
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 23, 2025
The Pat Cummins-led side registers a 4️⃣4️⃣-run win over Rajasthan Royals 👏
Scorecard ▶ https://t.co/ltVZAvInEG#TATAIPL | #SRHvRR pic.twitter.com/kjCtGW8NdV
How else to explain paceman Jofra Archer of the Royals conceding 76 runs in his four overs, the most expensive spell in the history of the tournament.
Or that even the victorious Sunrisers skipper and arguably the leading fast bowler in the world at the moment, Pat Cummins, was clouted for 60 runs in his wicketless spell.
In this year’s tournament, the puzzle will not be how to score runs in Hyderabad, but how to restrict them.
HECTIC RUN-RATE
One bowler who hinted how this might be done was the Sunrisers’ medium-pacer Harshal Patel who took 2-34 in his four overs, taking pace off the ball and offering a rich variety of deliveries, including slow-ball bouncers and deliveries “into” the pitch.
One category of delivery, the yorker, was, however, conspicuous by its relative absence in the match, an indication perhaps that just missing your mark can be terminal for the bowler.
The Sunrisers’ innings was given an explosive liftoff by openers Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, but it was the partnership of Head and Kishan (85 in 39 balls) that got the crowd screaming.
Head’s 67 in just 31 balls included nine fours and three sixes and it was a re-run of much of last season for the Aussie left-hander.
When he departed, caught on the boundary, Kishan simply continued the hectic run-rate without any pause with Nitish Kumar Reddy (30 in 15 balls) and Heinrich Klaasen (34 in 14 balls) as the Sunrisers’ innings fell just short of that magic 300.
𝙄.𝘾.𝙔.𝙈.𝙄 🔥
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 23, 2025
Ishan Kishan dealt in sixes on his way to a magnificent maiden #TATAIPL 💯 😮 👊
Updates ▶ https://t.co/ltVZAvHPP8#SRHvRR | @SunRisers | @ishankishan51 pic.twitter.com/9PjtQK231J
The Royals’ bowlers will not want to consult their bowling figures too closely and will hope that other pitches give them more assistance, but medium-pacer Tushar Deshpande didn’t panic and he was rewarded with figures of 3-44.
The Royals, knowing that they couldn’t hang around, began super-aggressively with Sanju Samson playing beautifully for his 66 off 37 balls.
Understandably, the required pace meant that wickets fell regularly but his fourth-wicket stand of 111 in 60 balls with Dhruv Jurel – a stunning 70 off 35 balls, including five fours and six sixes – almost quietened the massive crowd.
When both men were dismissed within two balls of each other, the game was effectively over though that didn’t stop Shimron Hetmyer (42 in 23 balls) and Shubham Dubey (34* in 11 balls) from enjoying themselves to the tune of 80 runs in 34 balls before Hetmyer perished in the deep off the penultimate ball of the innings.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (capt), Simarjeet Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami.
Impact Subs: Baby, Unadkat, Ansari, Zampa and Mulder.
RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubham Dubey, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag (capt), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Impact Subs: Samson, Maphaka, Rathore, Madhwal and Kartikeya