Ishan Kishan had scored just 33 runs from his last seven innings
Ishan Kishan’s opening day of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 has stuff of dreams. The left-hander switched to Sunrisers Hyderabad after seven seasons with Mumbai Indians where his form progressively got worse. He was also dropped from the BCCI central contracts last year and straightaway slammed a brilliant 106 not out 47 against Rajasthan Royals.
However, the Jharkhand man lost his scoring touch with just 33 runs in the next seven matches. It also included a strange dismissal against Mumbai Indians in Hyderabad where he was given caught out by the umpire in a strange mix-up.
However, Kishan bounced back from the extended lean patch against bottom-placed Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk with a fluent 44 off 34 balls that set up SRH’s five-wicket victory.
Kishan walked in just two balls into the chase of 155 after Abhishek Sharma was out for a duck and steadied the inning until the 12th over on a pitch that aided bowlers. Kamindu Mendis’ unbeaten 32 off 22 balls and Nitish Kumar Reddy’s 19 not out off 13 balls took them over the line with eight balls remaining.
ALSO READ:
Former India pacer Varun Aaron was full of praise for Kishan’s innings building.
“His team must be really pleased. He had a string of really bad scores. I think he scored more runs in this innings than in his last seven innings. He would have been really disappointed not to take it home as it wasn’t like a really good delivery (from Noor Ahmad to dismiss him),” Aaron said on ESPNCricinfo’s Time Out.
“He is one of those players who, if he gives himself time at the start, can take it really deep,” he added about Kishan.
On a pitch where both pacers and spinners excelled, Kishan navigated the chase with caution and scored boundaries when there was a good chance. Former Australia captain Aaron Finch praised the approach.
“He showed his ability to read the situation and not overplay his hand early on and be overly aggressive. He made sure he assessed the conditions, which is never easy because you want to maximise the powerplay. On the back of an early wicket, he assessed it and played nicely,” Finch said.
After condemning CSK to the bottom place, SRH will next take on table toppers Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
For more updates, follow CricXtasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, and YouTube.
