NEW DELHI: Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Praful Hinge turned his manifestation into reality in spectacular fashion, returning figures of 4/34 in a historic IPL performance against Rajasthan Royals on Monday. His spell helped Sunrisers Hyderabad register a commanding 57-run victory over Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
“I wrote it down somewhere that I could take four or five wickets on debut,” Hinge said after bagging his Player of the Match award on debut.
After Sunrisers Hyderabad posted a massive 216/6, powered by a blistering 91 off 44 balls from captain Ishan Kishan, Hinge set the tone with a fiery opening burst that dismantled the chase almost immediately. His three-wicket first over effectively shattered the table-toppers’ hopes of chasing 217 before the innings could even settle.
Hinge finished with a remarkable opening spell of 2-0-6-4, tearing through RR’s in-form top order and guiding SRH to their first defeat for the visitors in five matches.
“I had written this somewhere that I will take 4-5 wickets on my debut. I thought of dominating the powerplay. I believe in it (manifestation),” Hinge told the broadcaster after the match.
“At the age of 13, I started cricket. Did not know what leather ball cricket was. Asked my father to join a club. But he said I was too young. Then he just took me there, and I kept playing after it. Want to dedicate this award to my family.”
Hinge also revealed that he had planned to dismiss RR opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi with a bouncer.
“I had told people that I would bowl a bouncer to him and get him out. I just wanted to get him out. Varun bhai (our bowling coach) helped me plan it, so thank you,” he said.
Hinge’s four-wicket haul was complemented by another impressive debut from pacer Sakib Hussain, who returned figures of 4/24.
“Every player hopes for a debut like this, so it feels really good. I’m very happy. The (SRH) bowling coach informed me a day before the game that I would be playing. From then on, my focus was simply on performing well. Mentally, I prepared myself to give my best,” Hussain said.
“Varun (Aaron) bhai has been working with me for the past four years. Whatever improvement you see in my bowling is because of him. I give him full credit. It felt amazing. To have such a performance in my debut match is very special,” he added.
SRH skipper Ishan Kishan praised the intent of his young pace duo, Hinge and Hussain, highlighting their hunger and preparation throughout the season.
“You also have to look how hungry your young bowlers are, how motivated they feel and you know how much they are hungry to play these games and I think they were working out throughout the season,” he said.
“They were working with fielding, our bowling coach Varun Aaron and they were just trying to give their best, talking to all the experienced players. They especially did well in the practice matches as well, so I think this was the right move today,” Kishan added.
Kishan also spoke about the challenges of captaining as a wicketkeeper.
“As a captain, I felt, you know, there was some miscommunication going on. You’re not able to communicate with your bowlers what the plans are. So it’s better to be there, discuss with them what they’re going to bowl so that we can feel, set the field accordingly,” he said.
Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag admitted he had little prior exposure to SRH’s new-ball pair.
“I haven’t seen them a lot in domestic cricket. I think I played Sakib once, Bihar versus Assam. But they bowled beautifully. Considering the pressure of the home crowd supporting them and chanting their names, the way they bowled in the first four or five overs was really impressive,” Parag said.
Parag also reflected on his side’s decision at the toss.
“We lost back-to-back wickets, credit to the way they bowled. There were probably a few miscalculations from our side as well, but we will just take this as a blip and not think about it too much,” he said.
“I felt bowling second might have been better, probably because we lost wickets early. It was a little sticky with the new ball while it had shine. Once the shine wore off, it slowed down a bit.
“In hindsight, we could have bowled second, but there are a lot of things we could have done better,” he added.