High-flying Rajasthan Royals, the only side to win four out of their first four games in IPL 2026, were brought crashing down by an unlikely duo in Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain, who dismantled the mighty RR batting line-up. Neither captain Riyan Parag nor his teammates had any clue what was coming their way.
If it was Praful who all but ended Rajasthan’s hopes in the opening over with three wickets, Sakib sealed the fate, triggering a late collapse as Sunrisers Hyderabad secured a comfortable 57-run win at home.
The game was virtually over by the third over of Rajasthan’s chase at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, when the visitors slipped to 9/5. Praful became the first bowler in IPL history to take three wickets in the opening over, including the dismissal of prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for a golden duck. In fact, none of those three batters got off the mark.
Sakib then struck in his first over, removing Yashasvi Jaiswal, before Praful returned in the third over to dismiss Parag, drawing an outside edge that flew straight to Abhishek Sharma at slip.
“I think I’ve not seen them a lot domestically,” Parag said in the post-match chat. “But I think I played Sakib once when I played Bihar vs Assam. They bowled beautifully. I felt the pressure they created with the home crowd supporting and chanting their names. The way they bowled in the first four or five overs was really impressive.”
Rajasthan did mount a fightback through a century stand between Ravindra Jadeja and Donovan Ferreira, but Sakib returned to break the partnership and picked up two more wickets to wrap up the game with an over to spare.
‘Just a blip’
Parag did not dwell much on the defeat, calling it “just a blip” while highlighting positives from the Jadeja-Ferreira stand after the team had slumped to 9/5.
“Not a lot of time to feel emotions. Credit to the way they bowled. A few miscalculations from us. The pitch was pretty good. Felt bowling second might have been better. It was sticky with the new ball, and after the shine went, it slowed down. But again, that is hindsight — we could have batted better.”
“Being five wickets down for nine and still getting to 160 says a lot about the depth. It is just a blip,” he added.
Rajasthan Royals will next face Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on April 19.
