Sunrisers Hyderabad star Travis Head turned on his butcher mode as he took apart the Rajasthan Royals' bowling line-up in their clash at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad.
Head, the Aussie beast, began his IPL 2025 season in the same vain as he ended his 2024 season. He was off the blocks quickly as he hit three boundaries in his first nine balls, before taking apart Jofra Archer for five boundaries in a 23-run over.
During that 23-run fifth over, Head tonked Jofra for a huge jaw-dropping 105m six. He cleared his front leg on a ball that was onto his stumps and slammed it over deep mid-wicket for a huge maximum.
Watch the video here:
Head got his fifty in the eighth over off just 21 balls. He took a few more runs at a quick knot before departing for a 31-ball 67. His knock was laced with nine fours and three sixes.
The Royals opted to bowl first. Riyan Parag led the Royals in his first game as skipper. He is in charge of the team in the limited presence of Sanju Samson, who has been cleared to play as a batter or impact sub and not as a pure wicketkeeper due to his recent finger issue.
"Bowling first. Looks like a dry wicket so we'll have a crack at it later. (On captaincy) Means a lot, started here as a 17-year-old. Getting to fill in big shoes, very excited. The impact rule helps with Sanju. We've retained a lot of our core so that helps with the batting order. The other three overseas will be Theekshana, Jofra and Farooqi. Always good to start well, we have practiced a lot," Parag said at the toss.
"It is great to be back. The core of the group is the same, the coaching staff is the same. Don't think batting or bowling first matters. It is pretty hot, so don't mind bowling second. Would be nice to keep last season's form going. We always encourage our games to play with freedom. Abhi and Heady with hopefully continue from last year, and Nitish and Klassen are there as well. Ishan Kishan and Abhinav Manohar will be making their debuts," SRH skipper Cummins at the toss.
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubham Dubey, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag(c), Dhruv Jurel(w), Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Playing XI): Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins(c), Simarjeet Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami