Hyderabad, April 13 (IANS) Captain Ishan Kishan top-scored with a blistering 91 as Sunrisers Hyderabad posted a towering 216/6 against Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday.

Jofra Archer silenced the sell-out Uppal crowd by dismissing Abhishek Sharma on the very first delivery. Travis Head struggled for rhythm, but Kishan operated on a different level. Anything full and wide was crashed through the off side with lightning hands, while short balls were dealt with authoritative pulls and whips to bring up his 19th IPL fifty.

He hammered eight fours and six sixes in his 44-ball 91, and was the dominant partner in an 88-run stand for the third wicket with Heinrich Klaasen (40) that shifted momentum entirely. Late fireworks from Nitish Kumar Reddy (28) and Salil Arora (24 not out) ensured a clinical finish.

Pushed into batting first, SRH had an awful start. Abhishek Sharma charged down on Archer’s first ball and mistimed to third man for a golden duck. It was Archer’s fourth first-ball wicket in the IPL, while Abhishek bagged his seventh duck in T20s this year.

However, Archer’s second over brought him back to earth as Kishan whipped him for four, before pulling a bouncer for six and launching Sandeep Sharma down the ground. Nandre Burger nearly dismissed Travis Head twice in the fourth over – a nip-backer took an inside edge for four, while a mistimed loft just evaded Archer.

But a rusty Head holed out to long-on off Riyan Parag just after the fifty was raised in the power-play. Kishan marched forward to bring his fifty in 30 balls with a monstrous slog sweep off Ravi Bishnoi and brought up SRH’s hundred by smoking Tushar Deshpande for six.

Kishan then smashed three boundaries off Deshpande via a wristy flick and a brace of slices, as 21 runs came off the 11th over as the fifty-partnership with Klaasen arrived in just 26 deliveries. Kishan continued to tear into Archer, carving him through backward point, long-on, and deep mid-wicket for three fours.

Following a floodlight failure break, Kishan fell nine runs short of his century, miscuing a pull off Sandeep to keeper Dhruv Jurel, who survived a collision with the pacer. Two overs later, Klaasen chipped straight to extra cover off Archer.

Reddy continued the boundary-hitting spree, pulling Deshpande for six before launching Sandeep for three maximums. Archer eventually used his height to extract extra bounce, and catch Reddy’s edge on a wild slog. Finally, four boundaries from Arora, including a six over long-off to go past 200, ensured the hosts finished with a strong total.

Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 216/6 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 91, Heinrich Klaasen 40; Jofra Archer 2-37, Riyan Parag 1-5) against Rajasthan Royals

–IANS

nr/