Sooryavanshi out on first-ball duck; Ishan Kishan powers Sunrisers to 217 against Royals

Ishan Kishan smashed 91 off 44 balls to power Sunrisers Hyderabad to 217 against Rajasthan Royals in their IPL clash at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy added crucial runs, setting up a strong total for Sunrisers

Hyderabad: Captain Ishan Kishan’s brilliance (91, 44b, 8×4, 6×6) helped Sunrisers Hyderabad, put in to bat, set a challenging target of 217 for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL league match at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Monday night.

Earlier, Sunrisers were off to a disastrous start with opener Abhishek Sharma dismissed for a first-ball duck as he went for an aerial stroke on off-stump only to slice fast bowler Jofra Archer straight to deep point, leaving the crowd stunned.

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At the other end, Ishan seemed unruffled, whipping Archer to the fine-leg fence and then pulling for a huge six in the same over. Later, he launched into a glorious straight six off pacer Sandeep Sharma.

In the powerplay, Sunrisers scored 51 for one thanks largely to Ishan’s belligerence.

Then, Royals captain and off-spinner Riyan Parag struck in his first over, holding one back slightly to lure a struggling Travis Head (18) into hitting straight to long-on, making it 55/2 in 6.5 overs.

The reliable Heinrich Klaasen soon showed his class by lofting leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi over long-on and, in the same over, Ishan swung one into the stands to reach his half-century (55, 30b, 2×4, 5×6). This saw Sunrisers score 88 for two at the halfway stage.

In the next over, Ishan treated pacer Tushar Deshpande with contempt, whipping for a four, pulling over the fence, slashing to square-third fence and a falling slash to the fence to score 20 runs in the 11th over. He then hit Archer for three fours in the 13th over.

However, in the next over, Sandeep provided a huge breakthrough (144/3) for Royals, taking a difficult return catch to send back Ishan Kishan.

In the 16th over, Klaasen (40, 26b, 1×4, 3×6) failed to reach a back-of-length ball and hit Deshpande straight to covers (162/4).

Then, Nitish Kumar Reddy (28, 13b, 4×6) took charge, pulling Deshpande for a six and then hitting three sixes in the 18th over off Sandeep to the delight of the near-capacity crowd before edging one from Archer to the wicketkeeper in the 19th over.

A cameo by Salil Arora (24, 13b, 2×4, 2×6) propped the total in the slog overs.