It was Monday night, that post-work hour when dinner is half-ready and the television hums in the background. If you had someone keeping an eye on the match for you, the message came quickly: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal were about to walk out for Rajasthan Royals.
Key takeaways
- Rajasthan were reduced to 1 for 3 before slipping further, eventually finishing at 9 for 5 during the chase.
- Praful Hinge made a sensational IPL debut for Sunrisers Hyderabad with figures of 4 for 34.
- Sakib Hussain also impressed on debut, striking with 4 for 26 as the Royals struggled to build momentum.
- In the tournament’s history, no bowler had previously taken three wickets in the opening over of an innings—until this match.
- Sunrisers’ “new-look” bowling attack paid off after Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat were left out for this game.
Debut impact for Sunrisers Hyderabad
By the time the hands were washed and the chair was pulled closer to the screen, the Royals were already in trouble—1 for 3, then 2 for 4, and soon 9 for 5. Even if you weren’t a Sunrisers fan, the standout question on everyone’s mind was simple: who exactly is Praful Hinge?
Hinge may not have been widely known at the start of his IPL story, but his background is rooted in domestic cricket. The fast bowler from Vidarbha is tall and lanky, and over the last two years he has spent most of his time bowling in relative obscurity across nearly all of his overs in 17 professional matches.
His rise has been rapid. At 13, he had not even been sure what to do with a leather ball. By the time he was 24, he was already opening the bowling for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Just two hours after taking his Player-of-the-Match award, his focus was on family—his father, who got him enrolled in a cricket club, and his sister, a chartered accountant, who made significant sacrifices so he could pursue the dream.
It was in the Vidarbha Pro T20 League last year that he made his name, even if many outside the state would not have followed those games. Ahead of this season, SRH bowling coach Varun Aaron had clearly seen enough to believe. After the match, Aaron explained that he had come across these bowlers previously and had shared their names with the management, including Dan Vettori and the rest of the coaching team. Still, he stressed that an auction requires full buy-in from everyone involved before a player is picked.
That buy-in mattered in this match too. Bringing Hinge in wasn’t just a move for overs—it was a statement of intent. He was handed his debut alongside Sakib Hussain, another youngster. Sakib is 21, a medium pacer from Bihar, and the only IPL experience on his record before this game was a season spent warming the bench for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024.
The uncapped pair replaced two established IPL campaigners: Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat. Sunrisers had won only one of their first four matches, and for this game they made a decisive change—out with the old, in with the new. The results arrived quickly, and far beyond what anyone could reasonably have expected.
On Monday night, Hinge and Sakib produced an opening spell that turned the chase on its head. For the first time in IPL history, no Indian bowler had previously completed a four-for on debut—until this match. With the new ball from either end, Hinge finished with 4 for 34 and Sakib with 4 for 26. The most staggering element was the timing: in 19 years of IPL cricket, never before had a bowler taken three wickets in the first over of an innings. Monday night changed that.
How the chase was dismantled
Earlier in the same week, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had already sent a message to the field by smashing Jasprit Bumrah for a six off the first ball. So he wasn’t planning to wait around against Hinge. The moment Sooryavanshi arrived on strike in the second ball of Rajasthan’s chase of 217, the bowler and batter were immediately in a duel.
Hinge kept him from settling. The delivery was fired in on a hard length, angled across the left-hander, then climbed faster than expected when Sooryavanshi tried to swivel into a pull. His arms were cramped and couldn’t extend fully, and the ball ballooned up behind him. It finally settled into Salil Arora’s gloves.
After the game, Hinge explained the thought process behind the plan. He said he had told some people he would dismiss Sooryavanshi with a bouncer, and that the specific goal was to get the wicket on the first ball he faced.
Hinge’s method backed up the intent. His tall frame repeatedly sent the ball back of a length, and the bounce carried more than batters seemed to expect. There was also a subtle swing element—movement that played across the left-hander—so the Royals quickly ran into trouble. Rajasthan were 1 for 3 as Dhruv Jurel, trying to dab one towards third, edged the ball onto his off stump. Then Lhuan-dre Pretorius tried to strike a full delivery off his pads, but the shot found the fielder positioned at deep backward square leg.
Before Hinge could even finish his second over, he already had his fourth wicket. This time he showed he could turn the ball the other way as well. A full tempter outside off stump induced Riyan Parag to throw his hands at it, and the edge was taken by slip. Rajasthan were now 9 for 5.
That “five down” moment came because Sunrisers were attacking from both ends. In the second over, Sakib came in with a slightly more front-on action and set up Yashasvi Jaiswal with a short ball angled away. Jaiswal was forced to reach for an uppercut, and the ball was picked out by the deep backward point area—one of the two fielders placed outside the circle. Jaiswal found that exact spot, and the catch followed.
At 9 for 5, it looked almost over—yet modern T20 cricket can change quickly, particularly with teams batting deeper thanks to the Impact Player rule. A century partnership between Donovan Ferreira and Ravindra Jadeja kept Rajasthan alive, but the game was pushed towards closure when Sakib returned for his third over. Rajasthan required 97 off 36 balls at that stage.
The first five deliveries of the over initially offered nothing but frustration: swing-and-miss attempts and a wild miscue, both tied to the slower ball. Then Sakib produced the breakthrough. He drove a long ball into the right-hander’s hitting arc, taking the delivery beyond the usual line. Ferreira, unaware of the subtle extra work—specifically a delayed roll of the fingers across the seam—committed too early when he swung across the line. The slower ball beat him with a mix of lack of pace and turn, striking thigh pad and ricocheting into the stumps.
Sakib’s night didn’t end there. He added two more pace-off wickets, removing Jofra Archer and Ravi Bishnoi.
Varun Aaron later summed up what made the duo so dangerous, calling it the “X-factor” that Sakib and Hinge brought to Sunrisers. He said they had something different that could stand out, especially in periods where batters were simply trying to hit through everything.
Why the match will be remembered
You may have tuned in hoping to focus on Sooryavanshi, because many did. But once the chase began, the match turned into something bigger: two remarkable debuts that completely reshaped the storyline. The result was one of those IPL nights fans will talk about for a long time, and the names—Hinge and Sakib—are the ones that will stick.
