With his three wickets in his maiden over in the IPL in the match against Rajasthan Royals at Hyderabad on Monday evening, pacer Praful Hinge became the first bowler in the league’s history to take three wickets in the opening over.
While he finished with a match haul of four wickets during Hyderabad’s 57-run win over the Royals, Hinge took his maiden IPL wicket in the form of IPL sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi off the second ball of his maiden over. The 15-year-old, who had become IPL’s youngest centurion last year, tried to hit Hinge for a six, but the extra pace and bounce meant that the U-19 World Cup winner mishit the ball and gave a catch to wicket-keeper Salil Arora, resulting in Hinge’s maiden wicket. Post the match, Hinge spoke about how he had planned for Sooryavanshi’s wicket and had told a few people that he would remove the attacking opener off the first ball.
“Of all the wickets, the best one was the first one, of (Vaibhav) Sooryavanshi. Because he was in form. So I wanted that. Maine 2-3 logon ko bta ke rakha tha ki main isko pehli ball par bouncer mar ke out karunga. Ya fir koi ball pe par out karna hai pehli ball par. (I told 2-3 people that I will get him out first ball with a bouncer. Or with some other ball, but I will get him out first). And bowling coach Varun (Aaron) also helped me a lot,” shared Hinge while talking in the post match presentation.
The 24-year-old Vidharbha pacer picked up the wickets of Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel and Lhuan-dre Pretorius in his first over before he removed Royals’ skipper Riyan Parag in his spell. At once, Hinge’s bowling figures read 1 for 3 in one over. His four wickets coupled with fellow pacer Sakib Hussain’s four wickets meant that Royals were never into the game and the Hyderabad side won the match by 57 runs. With Sooryavanshi In blazing form this season having scored 200 runs in four matches prior to Monday’s game, Hinge had his task cut out. Sooryavanshi had earlier hit bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood for sixes in their first over and with Hinge removing him off the first ball of the Royals’ innings, former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis was left awestruck in the commentary box.
“We were just blown away in the commentary. Guy coming to bowl in his debut match and there were such high expectations. Sooryavanshi, a guy that attacked the first ball as Irfan was saying. Give it a thought. Easy game today. I am not facing Bumrah, I am not facing Hazelwood. I am facing some guy on his debut. I am going to take him down with a six. And he bowled a beautiful ball. Make the ball rise up and bounce a little bit extra,” said du Plessis while speaking on JioHotstar.
Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Ishan Kishan also showed praise on the pace duo of Hinge and Hussain post the match. When asked about the move to give chance to the young pace duo, Kishan spoke about how hungry the young bowlers were. “I think you also have to look at how hungry your young bowlers are, How motivated they feel and you know how hungry they are to play these games. I think they were working out through the season. They were working with the bowling coach and they were just trying to give their best talking to all the experienced players. So I think that was something we were looking for and we had to give them a chance and we were paying in our home ground. They especially did well in practice matches as well. So I think this was the right move today,” Kishan said in the post match presentation.
