Sunrisers Hyderabad began Indian Premier League 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, scored a massive 278/3 on a flat pitch, and set the tone for thrashing Kolkata Knight Riders by 110 runs.
With a cacophony of cheers for the Orange Army in the 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, contributed to them getting bowled out for 168 in 18.4 overs, as SRH jumped to sixth place in the points table.
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 SRH in a prime position to conclude their season with a big victory.
Chasing 279 was always going to be an uphill task, but Sunil 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 Jaydev 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.
Late blitz help KKR avoid heaviest defeat in IPL history
With the Delhi pitch being traditionally better for spinners, left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey struck on back-to-back deliveries - Rinku Singh holed out to deep mid-wicket, while Andre 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 Harshit 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.
