Hyderabad: Debutant pacers Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain announced themselves on the grand stage by picking eight wickets collectively as Sunrisers Hyderabad ended IPL 2026 table topper Rajasthan Royals winning juggernaut with a thumping 53-run win at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
On a pitch where the odd ball was stopping, captain Ishan Kishan hammered eight fours and six sixes in his blistering 44-ball 91 as SRH posted a towering 216/6. Anything full and wide was crashed through the off side via Kishan’s lightning hands, while short balls were dealt with authoritative pulls and whips for the SRH captain to bring up his 19th IPL fifty.
But that effort was overshadowed by a scintillating spell from Hinge, who was named to debut against Punjab Kings last week, but was later pipped by Jaydev Unadkat as the impact player. In a script that felt like a fairytale coming true, Nagpur-based Hinge became the first bowler in IPL history to claim a three-wicket haul in the opening over.
He broke the back of RR’s mighty top order, including dismissing Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for a duck, to end up with 4-34. Hussain, hailing from Gopalganj in Bihar, provided the clinical finish and remained unflappable to pick 4-24, as RR were bowled out for 159 in 19 overs.
SRH’s gamble of bleeding two debutantes coming in place of experienced campaigners Unadkat and Harshal Patel proved to be a masterstroke. The victory is SRH's second in five games and catapults them to fourth spot on the points table.
On the very first ball of his spell, Hinge did what the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood hadn’t managed to do this season: dismiss Sooryavanshi cheaply. Sooryavanshi’s eyes lit up on seeing the short ball and went for an expansive pull, but the top-edge was caught by keeper Salil Arora, leaving Hinge and SRH jubilant.
It was the start of a sensational spell for Hinge – on the very next ball, he had Dhruv Jurel chopping on to his stumps, before Lhuan-dre Pretorius flicked straight to long leg. From the other end, fellow debutant pacer Sakib Hossain got his first IPL scalp as Yashasvi Jaiswal upper-cut a short ball with extra bounce to deep backward point.
The nightmare continued for RR, as Hinge removed skipper Riyan Parag with a lovely outswinger, which he edged to slip, as the inaugural champions lost five scalps even before the third over was completed.
