It’s not every day you see someone walk onto the biggest stage in cricket and just… take over. Praful Hinge, barely two senior T20 games into his career, decided Monday night was the perfect time to rewrite the record books. The Sunrisers Hyderabad pacer took the new ball, and within six deliveries, he’d changed the entire complexion of the game against the Rajasthan Royals. Watching him, you could almost hear the collective gasp from the crowd as he dismantled that top order—it was one of those moments that feels slightly surreal while it’s happening.
He managed to snag three wickets in that opening over alone, which is a first for the tournament, by the way. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi was out for a golden duck, followed quickly by Dhruv Jurel and Lhuan-dre Pretorius. Just like that, the Royals were reeling. I mean, they were chasing 217 for the win, which is already a massive ask, but to be staring down a collapse like that before the scorekeeper even had a chance to settle in? It was brutal.
Then he came back for his second over and picked up the Royals skipper, Riyan Parag. Total figures of 4-34. It’s hard to wrap your head around that kind of debut performance, especially when you consider the pressure of the IPL. Misryoum noted that he wasn’t alone in this, though. His teammate Sakib Hussain, also making his first appearance, chipped in with a 4-24 haul. It was a complete dismantling of the Rajasthan lineup, ending with them bowled out for just 159.
Honestly, I’m still trying to process how the Royals went from unbeaten in four matches to this. The Sunrisers needed this, obviously. This is only their second win in five tries, but it bumps them up to fourth in the standings. It’s a huge shift in momentum for them.
There was something almost careless—in a good way—about how Hinge bowled. Just pure instinct. Or maybe he was just incredibly composed? Either way, the stats don’t lie.
Rajasthan looked lost out there. You have to wonder if they’ll recover quickly from this or if the shock of the opening over is going to linger for a bit. Regardless, the Sunrisers have their new hero, even if it all happened so fast it’s hard to tell if he even realized what he’d done by the end of the over. He just kept running in.