Sunrisers Hyderabad chased down a 229-run target with five wickets and nine balls to spare against the Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Saturday, April 25.

Opting to bowl first after winning the toss, Sunrisers got the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal early. However, Dhruv Jurel joined forces with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and the talented duo forged a 112-run stand off 62 balls. The latter was the wrecker-in-chief in the stunning partnership.

Riyan Parag once again failed to make it count with the bat. Shimron Hetmyer was also dismissed cheaply. However, Donovan Ferreira showed a glimpse of his scintillating ball-striking talent during a 33-run cameo off 16 balls.

However, it was Sooryavanshi who made the fans and experts at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium stand up on their feet to applaud his talent after he slammed a 35-ball century. Sakib Hussain eventually dismissed him for 103 off 37 balls. His magnificent knock played a massive role in helping Rajasthan post a daunting total of 228/6.

In the second innings, Sunrisers would have hoped for a quick start from the opening pair of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma. However, Jofra Archer dismissed the former off the fifth ball. He was unlucky not to get him off the first ball as Jurel failed to take a regulation catch.

After Abhishek and Ishan Kishan joined forces, the Rajasthan bowlers were being hit to all areas of the park. The home side was sloppy on the field, with Shimron Hetmyer and Ravindra Jadeja missing straightforward chances. Abhishek and Ishan’s partnership yielded 132 runs off just 55 balls.

After Abhishek departed in the 10th over for a 29-ball 57, Heinrich Klaasen came out to the crease. Kishan hit a few lusty blows before being dismissed by Archer for a 31-ball 74. Nitish Kumar Reddy and Klaasen continued the onslaught and took their team closer to the target.

Brijesh Sharma dismissed the two right-handed batters in the 18th over, but it was too little too late for the Royals. Salil Arora and Aniket Verma took the Orange Army home in 18.3 overs with five wickets still in the bank.

Talking points:

1. ‘Wonderkid’ Vaibhav Sooryavanshi wows cricket fraternity once again

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had a field day out in the middle. He batted with great composure and unleashed a brutal display of power-hitting. It seemed as if he was treating the SRH bowling attack as a group of net bowlers. What was excellent to see was the method he had to the madness. There was very little slogging involved during his 103-run stand off 37 balls. He hit five fours and 12 sixes, finishing with a strike rate of 278.38.

2. Ishan Kishan-Abhishek Sharma torment RR bowlers

Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma’s blistering partnership wasn’t free from blemishes. However, as the saying goes, ‘Luck favours the brave.’ The two southpaws made Rajasthan pay for the fielding lapses. Abhishek hit 11 fours and one six during his 57-run knock off 29 balls. Meanwhile, Kishan amassed 74 off 31 deliveries, with 11 fours and three sixes to his name.

3. Fielding lapses cost the Rajasthan Royals

Errors in the field cost Delhi Capitals the afternoon fixture against the Punjab Kings. A similar story unfolded in the second game on Saturday. The likes of Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, and Shimron Hetmyer missing fairly simple chances meant that Rajasthan could never really put the opposition under pressure. They will have to go back to the drawing board and come back stronger in their next game.

Who said what

Riyan Parag, Rajasthan Royals captain:

I think skill-wise, we executed pretty nicely, but I think we dropped a few too many catches. And quality players like Abhishek and everyone who batted, I feel you can’t really drop catches of them and you can’t really give them second chances. And they took them, so credit to that. But we could have been better on the field. (what will Trevor Penney make them do next for their fielding today?) I mean, that’s going to be a sight to behold, hopefully not too harsh, but I think it’s one part of the game yes, but like I’ve been saying, we’ve got to be clinical and fielding plays a major part in that. So I feel next game, we’ll try and step it up. We’ve got a day’s break, I feel, mentally refresh and then come back next game. (satisfied with 228?) I think we left like 10-15 on the table. To be honest, they bowled really well in the 18th and the 19th over. They bowled like, executed really good yorkers. I felt not much we could have done. But best-case scenario, I think we would have liked another 15 runs. (what determined when Bishnoi came in?) Well, I think there were two lefties and I thought me and Don had a better chance of getting a wicket and then I wanted Klaasen to come in and then get Ravi and Jaddu bhai in. But the wicket was not really spin-friendly. So I just had to manage four overs. Maybe less of an economy I would have liked that, but then it was a wicket where the pacers had to take wickets and the spinners had to just be there and control the economy. Didn’t really go to plan, but would do the same thing next time as well. (on Archer) Absolutely, I think he’s been such a sensation this whole season. Another classical performance for him. Unlucky as well, a lot of top-edges in between the keeper and the fielders. So yeah, a few unlucky chances, a few chances that we gave away. Hopefully, we don’t repeat that next time. (on PK next) I think different venues everyday, different games, different ways to approach it. I feel we don’t know how Chandigarh is going to be as of now. I mean, they chased down a big score, yes, in Delhi, but Chandigarh is a new ground and a new wicket, a new soil. So hopefully, it doesn’t go to that extent. We’d like to restrict them for lower, but then that’s again another day’s thought and I have got some time to regroup, think about this and then move ahead.

Pat Cummins, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain:

(Returning to cricket after a long break) I’m really happy. You are never quite sure how it’s gonna come out first game. But the preparation was good. And I think I have played enough to maybe pick it up a bit earlier than I would have 10 years ago when I first started. I don’t know. (Today a record number of runs score in both games. Where are the bowlers going to go?) I don’t know! Start working on our batting (laughs). It’s incredible cricket. I mean, the good thing is it’s so high scoring that you do feel like even if you have a couple of bad overs or a couple of big overs, someone like, Praful (Hinge), you can bounce back and have a real impact on the game. So it’s just the way T20 cricket’s going, it’s good fun. (About young bowlers doing well in his absence) Yeah, awesome. Ishan (Kishan) led the beautiful way. Obviously we’ve got Harshal (Patel) and Jaydev (Unadkat) who started the season as well. So I feel like we’ve got a good, you know, dugout there full of bowlers for the young guys being awesome. They’ve got really clear plans on the next kid as well. (Feeling at the halfway) (We were) Quite calm. I think it could have gone away from us if it had gone up to 250. So 220, get ahead of it in the first six overs and hopefully it’s only 10 off or so an over which Ishan and these guys eat up pretty quickly at the moment. So very calm and confident group and yeah, really good win.

Ishan Kishan, Player of the Match:

(Relieved of captaincy duties, is that what does that to you?) No, I think as a wicket-keeper also you’ve got to do the same job. So I was just keeping it simple because I felt, that it’s a very good wicket to bat on and we just tried to restrict them under 230 and we were able to do that. So yeah. (How was it handing over the reins back to Pat Cummins?) It was quite fun leading the side for seven games and Pat coming in, giving us that extra bowling power. So I was really happy when he was coming in the team anyway because he’s such a tremendous captain anyway. So I was just thinking about my batting and wicket-keeping more than leadership. (What is it playing against these boys, the boys in pink?) You just have to keep on watching the ball and play your shots. You can’t get into a zone where you have a fear of failure when you’re doubting yourself or something. You just have to keep it simple and play your game. (The first ball was an absolute nasty one) I think I also it [was] pretty quick and got this extra bounce than what I expected, but yeah, I’m happy to get six runs out of this. Sometimes, I think fortune favors the brave. So you just have to watch the ball and keep on going. I think that was a good learning session for me. (Chasing a big score like this) I think we were pretty calm and the most important thing when you’re chasing a total like 228 is you need a good powerplay first of all. And having Head and Abhishek as an opener they make the job pretty easier for the rest of the batsmen, even if they bat for four overs. So I was just batting with them, communicating with Abhishek. He was well aware of the game, what’s happening, what run rate is going on. So I was just playing my shots and we both, did a great partnership in the middle, which helped our team. (But where does that calmness come from?) Yeah, I think calmness is about the skill set is always there. You have to be in good head spaces about just watching the ball and not being predetermined about what shots we have to play. So I was just thinking like, let’s just watch the ball. It’s a big ground. I’ll get some more gaps, big gaps. I think bigger ground means you will always get big gaps. So, you know, when the ball is not there, maybe you can push it in the gap and you keep the run-rate going. So that was the job and I think it was a pretty good wicket. Not much thinking to do, just bat, just bat and just enjoy it. (Are you batting at your best at the moment?) No, I think my best is yet to come.