Pacers Prasidh Krishna and Trent Boult ripped apart the Sunrisers Hyderabad's batting line-up with the new ball as Rajasthan Royals made a smashing start to their campaign in IPL 2022.
Sanju Samson's blazing half-century along with quickfire cameos from Devdutt Padikkal (41) and Shimron Hetmyer (32) launched Royals to a huge 210 for six after they were put into bat.
Sunrisers Hyderabad's hopes of chasing down the total came undone at the start when Krishna accounted for Kane Williamson (2), caught by Padikkal who was quick to react to the rebound after Samson had dived to his right but was unable to hold on to the catch.
Krishna then dismissed Rahul Tripathi for a duck in his next over, before Trent Boult accounted for the dangerous Nicholas Pooran for another duck in the next over.
Krishna had superb figures of 2/2 in three overs, including a maiden, while Boult took 1/8 in three overs, to leave Sunrisers reeling on 14/3 in six overs -- the joint lowest score in the Powerplay in IPL history.
There was no way back for Sunrisers from that point onwards with the champion spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal yet to have a bowl.
Chahal dented Sunrisers further as he sent back Abhishek Sharma for nine and then dismissed Abdul Samad in his next over. He should have got Aiden Markram in his third over, but Nathan Coulter-Nile put down a simple catch running in from long-off.
Chahal excelled on his Royals debut with excellent figures of 3/22, while Ashwin kept things tight at the other end.
Washington Sundar (40 from 14 balls) and Markram (57 not out from 41 balls) saved the blushes for Sunrisers as they went after the bowlers in the final overs but could not prevent their team from suffering a huge 61 run defeat.
