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Orange Army joy as Sunrisers’ debutants rip through Royals

cricket13 April 2026 18:23| © MWP
By:Patrick Compton
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Two sensational debuts from pacemen Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain helped Sunrisers Hyderabad to a 57-run victory over previously unbeaten Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday night.

Rajasthan stay top of the table while Sunrisers claimed their second win and moved up into mid-table.

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Hinge, a virtual unknown, grabbed three wickets in the opening over – the first bowler to achieve the feat in the IPL – and another in his second as Rajasthan crashed to 9-5 in three overs chasing Sunrisers’ total of 216-6. 

Hussain picked up his first wicket – the distinguished scalp of Yashasvi Jaiswal – in his first spell, then he cleaned up the tail beginning with Donovan Ferreira (69) who, with Ravindra Jadeja (45), showed the only sign of resistance with a sixth-wicket partnership of 118 in 72 balls.

On a pitch that is well known as a graveyard for bowlers, Hinge claimed 4-34 and Hussain 4-24 – a combined analysis of 8=58 – as Rajasthan Royals slumped to 159 all out in 19 overs and an overwhelming defeat.

Hinge’s first over was remarkable. With his second ball he had the 15-year-old phenomenon Vaibhav Sooryavanshi caught by wicketkeeper Salil Arora attempting to hook; with his fourth he forced Dhruv Jurel to play on and with his sixth he had South Africa’s Lhuan-dre Pretorius caught on the square-leg boundary.

And when he had RR skipper Riyan Parag caught in his second over fantasy briefly eclipsed reality.

Reality did reassert itself for a period as the powerful Ferreira struck his first IPL half-century, belting seven fours and three sixes in his innings before he was bowled by a canny Hussain slower ball.

In a match that was billed as the battle of the openers, none of them succeeded. Sunrisers' Abhishek Sharma was caught at third man slashing at Jofra Archer after Royals won the toss and inserted their opponents.

Travis Head looked out of sorts and struggled to 18 in 18 balls before holing out.

The guts of the Sunrisers’ innings were provided by Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen who added 88 in 39 balls for the third wicket.

Klaasen played second fiddle to Kishan who played brilliantly to crack 91 in just 44 balls, including eight fours and six sixes while a more restrained but confident Klaasen hit 40 in 26 balls.

When the pair fell there was a brief lull in the scoring before Nitish Kumar Reddy (28 in 13 balls) and Salil Arora (24* in 13 balls) took the home team's total well past the 200 mark.

RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (capt), Lhuan-dre Pretorius, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi, Tushar Deshpande

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (capt & wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Eshan Malinga, Praful Hinge

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