Hyderabad Wins with Second-Highest IPL Score, Defeats Rajasthan by 44 Runs

Hyderabad, 23 March – (www.deccanlive.com): Sunrisers Hyderabad started their IPL 18 campaign with a strong win, defeating Rajasthan Royals by 44 runs in their first match on Sunday.

Playing on their home ground, Hyderabad set a massive total of 286 runs. In response, Rajasthan managed to score 242 runs before being bowled out. Simarjeet Singh and Harshal Patel took two wickets each for Hyderabad.

For Rajasthan Royals, Dhruv Jurel scored 70 runs, while Sanju Samson contributed 67. Later, Shimron Hetmyer (42) and Shubham Dubey (34) built a fifty-run partnership, pushing the score past 200, but it wasn’t enough to secure a win.

Ishan Kishan was the star for SRH, smashing his maiden IPL century with 106 runs off 45 balls. Travis Head scored 67, Heinrich Klaasen added 34, Nitish Reddy made 30, and Abhishek Sharma contributed 24 runs. For Rajasthan, Tushar Deshpande took three wickets, while Maheesh Theekshana picked up two.

Ishan Kishan was awarded Player of the Match for his outstanding performance.