New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) Sunrisers Hyderabad began the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 by posting the second-best score in tournament history, before suffering a dramatic collapse and losing their chance at entering the playoffs. However, in their final match of the season at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, SRH displayed their usual aggressive batting, scoring a massive 278/3 on a flat pitch and setting the tone for thrashing Kolkata Knight Riders by 110 runs.
With a cacophony of cheers from the Orange Army in a decent crowd, Heinrich Klaasen stole the show by smashing an unbeaten 105 off just 39 balls and propelled SRH to the third-highest score in IPL’s history. Klaasen’s astounding century came in just 37 balls- the joint-third fastest hundred in IPL history.
His amazing innings included seven fours and nine sixes, coming at a strike rate of 269.23. Klaasen made his promotion to number three count by unleashing his prowess in consistently playing shots straight down the ground while punishing anything short by pulling with immaculate ease.
While hitting his second IPL hundred, Klaasen received strong support from Travis Head, who hit a brilliant 76 off 40 balls—his third IPL 2025 fifty, including six fours and six sixes. Cameos from Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and Aniket Verma further boosted SRH as they scored 74 runs in the last five overs.
KKR had to attack from the word go to have a crack at chasing 279, but three-fers from Eshan Malinga and Harsh Dubey, along with Jaydev Undakat’s early strikes, bowled them out for 168 in 18.4 overs. While SRH jumped to sixth place in the points table, KKR ended their campaign with their biggest-ever defeat in the IPL.
KKR’s disastrous evening began with a bowling performance which was utterly forgettable and inconsistent – their pacers and spinners were hammered by SRH’s aggressive batters, who plundered runs freely throughout the innings on wayward lengths, even in the middle overs.
Throughout the evening, their bowling was consistently too short or too full, a faulty strategy that significantly reduced their penetration with the ball, leaving Klassen-powered SRH in a prime position to conclude their season with a big victory.
Electing to bat first, after a quiet opening over, Head pulled Anrich Nortje for a powerful six, before Abhishek dispatched him for successive boundaries, as 20 runs came off the second over. Head then flicked and smacked Vaibhav Arora for two sixes, while punching him for four as 19 runs came off the third over.
Head’s onslaught continued as he feasted on Harshit Rana’s wayward lines to hit three fours in the fourth over, while Abhishek superbly lofted and pulled Nortje for consecutive boundaries in the next over. Fittingly, Head smacked Rana over mid-wicket for six, as SRH ended the power-play at 79/0.
Abhishek’s smacking game continued when he swatted Sunil Narine for successive sixes, before toe-ending off the spinner to mid-wicket and falling for a 16-ball 32. But there was no stopping Head as he went back to pull Varun Chakaravarthy over deep mid-wicket for six and got his fifty in 26 balls, as it also brought up SRH’s hundred in just 7.2 overs.
From the other end, Klaasen joined the boundary-hitting party by taking a six and four each off Chakaravarthy and Narine, respectively. Chakaravarthy came under the pump at the halfway mark as Head smacked him over long-off for six, before Klaasen hit him for three boundaries, as 20 runs came off it.
KKR called up Andre Russell to conjure some magic, but Klaasen and Head hit three boundaries collectively in a 17-run over. Klaasen smacked a listless Rana for four and two sixes, the second of which got his fifty in just 17 balls. Though Head holed out to long-off against Narine and went back for a 40-ball 76, Klaasen and Kishan ensured the boundary-hitting spree didn’t suffer – the former would rotate strike easily, allowing the latter to keep attacking KKR’s bowlers.
After Kishan cut Arora for four, while lofting and flicking with aplomb to get a four and six off Nortje, Klaasen smashed Narine for two sixes, before muscling Chakaravarthy for successive maximums, as SRH reached their 200 in the 15th over. After Kishan got a four off Russell via toe-end, Klaasen slammed downtown and glanced the all-rounder for six and another boundary.
Though Kishan sliced to deep point and walked back for a 19-ball 29, Klaasen got the brace which took him to his century on the last ball of 19th over and celebrated it in a stoic mode amidst applause from the sparse crowd. Aniket pulled and drove with an open face of the bat to take six and four off Nortje, before Klaasen chipped him through extra cover to ensure he remained unbeaten on 105 in a knock coming from SRH school of batting.
Chasing 279 was always going to be an uphill task, but Narine was off the blocks from the word go by smacking three sixes and a four off Pat Cummins’ first two overs, while collecting two edgy boundaries off Unadkat. But left-arm pacer Unadkat brought out a slower ball to go past Narine and hit his leg stump, as the batter fell for a 16-ball 31.
Ajinkya Rahane hit three boundaries before miscuing an off-cutter off Unadkat and was caught by cover. Two overs later, Quinton de Kock’s struggle ended at a 13-ball nine as he holed out to deep mid-wicket off a full toss from Malinga.
With the Delhi pitch being traditionally better for spinners, left-arm spinner Dubey struck on back-to-back deliveries – Rinku Singh holed out to deep mid-wicket, while Russell was trapped plumb lbw by a delivery which turned enough to beat his outside edge.
Despite some boundaries from Manish Pandey and Angkrish Raghuvanshi, KKR’s freefall continued as the latter pulled to deep square leg off Malinga, while Dubey foxed Ramandeep Singh with a quicker delivery spinning in to hit the stumps.
KKR were saved from suffering one of the worst defeats in IPL by some belligerent hitting from Pandey and Rana. While Rana hit three sixes in his first seven balls, Pandey brought out some clean-hitting strokes before falling to Unadkat, while Malinga took Rana’s catch on the second attempt to ensure SRH ended the season on a powerful note.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 278/3 in 20 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 105, Travis Head 76; Sunil Narine 2-42, Vaibhav Arora 1-39) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 168 all out in 18.4 overs (Manish Pandey 37, Sunil Narine 31; Eshan Malinga 3-31, Harsh Dubey 3-34) by 110 runs.
–IANS
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