Hinge swings door open for Sunrisers as teen Sooryavanshi flops
Fifteen-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi fell for a golden duck in a rare IPL flop as his team Rajasthan Royals went down to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 57 runs as two debutants Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain shined on Monday.
The teen prodigy has been the flavour of this season in the T20 tournament with two 15-ball fifties including in the previous match and key to Rajasthan's four wins.
But he was overshadowed by a magnificent performance from pace bowlers Hinge, 24, and Hussain, 21, who between them took 8-58 in their first outings in the IPL.
Hinge wreaked total havoc with a triple-wicket first over -- an IPL first -- as he sent back Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel and Lhuan-dre Pretorius, all three without scoring.
Opening at the other end, Hussain followed up by removing Yashasvi Jaiswal with his fourth ball and, in his next over, raised the roof at his home stadium in Hyderabad by having had Riyan Parag caught at slip.
The Rajasthan innings was in tatters at 9-5, the chase for Sunrisers' 217 effectively over.
Hinge, who idolises Australia's Pat Cummins, finished with 4-34 while Hussain lived up to his role of impact substitute by taking 4-24 as the 2016 champions bounced back after two losses.
"Last year, I had written somewhere that whenever I play my first match, I will definitely take four or five wickets," said player of the match Hinge.
"And I wanted to dominate as much as possible in the powerplay (first six overs when only two fielders are allowed outside the inner circle)."
South Africa's Donovan Ferreira, who top-scored with 69, and Ravindra Jadeja, who made 45, then put on 118 before Hyderabad were bowled out for 159 in 19 overs.
It was Rajasthan's first defeat in five games in this edition but they still top the 10-team table.
"There are definitely positives to take," said Rajasthan skipper Riyan Parag.
"It could have been a lot worse, and we had a strong partnership in there as well. It's just a blip."
- Sooryavanshi fails -
It was Sooryavanshi's wicket that stunned Rajasthan as the in-form opener top-edged a rising delivery from Hinge with the ball going high and caught by wicketkeeper Salil Arora.
The baby-faced Sooryavanshi looked up to the sky and walked back disappointed only to see more trouble for his team in the big chase.
Sooryavanshi made history in last year's IPL in a dazzling debut season highlighted by a 35-ball century, the second fastest in the history of IPL.
The new T20 sensation has mind-boggling numbers to his name, with 452 runs scored in 12 matches with a punishing strike rate of 228.28.
Earlier, Hyderabad skipper Ishan Kishan hit 91 off 44 balls to guide his team to 216-6 after being invited to bat first.
Abhishek Sharma fell for a first-ball duck off pace ace Jofra Archer and fellow opener Travis Head departed on 18 before the left-handed Kishan hit back.
Kishan, who hit eight fours and six sixes, put on 88 with Heinrich Klaasen, who made 40, to rebuild the innings and lay the foundations of the tall total.
Rajasthan's England star Archer returned figures of 2-37.
P.Fischer--BVZ
