IPL 2025: Kishan’s 106* ensures Sunrisers ease to win after posting 286

In IPL 2024, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) took batting to dizzying heights. With Ishan Kishan’s addition to an already power-packed line-up, everyone wondered if they might be the first team to hit 300 in the IPL.

In their opening fixture of IPL 2025, they seriously threatened to get there, thanks to Kishan’s 45-ball hundred on franchise debut and Travishek’s opening salvo.

They eventually fell 14 short of 300, and just one short of the IPL record they had set last season, but it was another emphatic statement of their high intent and power.

Kishan is an upgrade over their previous No. 3 Rahul Tripathi. He seamlessly slotted into SRH’s line-up, clattering an unbeaten 106 off 47 balls, his first IPL ton.

After Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma had helped SRH take 94 in the first six overs, the fifth-highest powerplay total, Kishan launched from there.

Rajasthan Royals (RR) made a decent fist of the chase, with Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel matching the intent and power of SRH’s batters with half-centuries.

Late blows from Shimron Hetmyer, the only overseas batter in RR’s squad, contributed to a match aggregate of 528, the second highest in the IPL, but such a mammoth target was always going to unchaseable. (ESPNcficinfo)