Hyderabad, March 23 Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan credited the backing of captain Pat Cummins and the head coach Daniel Vettori after scoring his maiden century in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 against Rajasthan Royals (RR) here on Sunday.
Kishan smacked an unbeaten 106 off 47 balls studded with 11 fours and six sixes to take the side 286/6 in 20 overs, the second-highest total in IPL history. The southpaw was named Player of the Match as SRH won the match by 44 runs to start their campaign on a thumping note.
Opener Travis Head contributed a knock of 67 off 31 balls while Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen played cameo knocks of 30 and 34 respectively to reach the mammoth total.
Talking about his innings, Kishan also credited the behind-the-scenes hard yards put in by him.
"The nervousness was there. Looking at the team, Pat and the coach gave me a lot of confidence. The environment is so calm. I just enjoyed my time in the middle. I had a lot of time, I was practising a lot, worked hard on my batting. The preparation was good.
"You can see Abhishek Sharma and Head going in and playing that sort of a game. You get the confidence. Pat - he knows what's there for the team. We have to enjoy whatever our gameplay is. You have to plan accordingly, don't be afraid of getting out," Kishan said in the post-match presentation.
Chasing 287, Rajasthan only managed to reach 242/6 in 20 overs on the back of half-centuries from Sanju Samson (66) and Dhruv Jurel (70). For SRH, Simranjeet Singh and Harshal Patel bagged two scalps each.
Rajasthan suffered a chaotic start as they lost opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (1), captain Riyan Parag (4), and Nitish Rana (11) in the first five overs. However, Impact Substitute Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel provided the much-needed juice to Rajasthan's innings. The duo kept the run rate ticking nearly around the required run rate and stitched a 111-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
Meanwhile, Samson and Jurel completed their half-centuries off 26 and 28 balls respectively. As things were looking in control for Rajasthan, pacer Harshal Patel turned the tide in Hyderabad's favour with the dismissal of Samson (66) in the 14th over.
In the next over, spinner Adam Zampa removed Jurel for 70 studded with six sixes and five fours to give a double blow to RR.
In the end, Shimron Hetmyer and Shubham Dubey fired their all cylinders but could not take the side over the line. Hetmyer played a quickfire knock of 42 off 23 balls while Dubey scored 11-ball 34 not out at an electric strike rate of 309.09 with the help of four sixes and a four.
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