In their final match of an underwhelming season, Sunrisers Hyderabad looked to be on course to breach 300, eventually finishing with a total of 278/3, which was far too much for Kolkata Knight Riders.
On paper, the clash between 2024’s IPL finalists was as lifeless a dead rubber as could be. Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders were both out of playoff contention and were playing at a neutral venue. But for the first half of the evening, SRH went back to the brand of cricket that one saw for the majority of last year and at the start of IPL 2025, threatening to breach the 300-mark that was on everybody’s mind this season.
In the end, riding on a stunning Heinrich Klaasen century, they finished with 278/3, the third-highest total in the history of the IPL. SRH now own the four highest team totals in the league. In reply, reigning champions KKR fell woefully short to be bowled out for 168.
Klaasen goes big
The South African dasher, speaking in the mid-innings break, said the key to his knock on the night at the Arun Jaitley Stadium was that he wasn’t trying to hit every ball for a six. In trying not to force the issue, he actually ended up smoking nine sixes on his way to the joint-third-fastest century in IPL off just 37 balls.
He might have been trying to be more calculative in ball-striking, but when he saw the ball in his half of the pitch from Varun Chakaravarthy, it didn’t matter that it was just the third delivery he was facing on the night. The signature pick-up pull shot and forearm-driven bat-swing came out for the first six of the night.
37-ball 💯 🤯
Heinrich Klaasen smashes joint third-fastest #TATAIPL century 💥
🔽 Watch | #SRHvKKR
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 25, 2025
It would be 10 more deliveries before he’d hit another six, and it was something he’d do frequently on the night: go straight down the ground with a straight bat. Apart from two fours and a six, the rest of his boundaries (five fours and eight sixes) came in the arc between cover and midwicket.
“Very pleased. It’s been a long season of disappointment, and sometimes against the process,” Klaasen said. He then got a bit profound. “I stuck with it and finally, I’ve gotten a little bit of reward tonight. It’s about pride, I want to change my life and my family’s, the franchise too spent a lot of time, effort and a lot of money into this brand of cricket, and we owe it to them to step up to the plate and dish out good performances.”
SRH, indeed, bet big on Klaasen coming good again this season, but it hadn’t quite panned out that way. A final return of 487 runs striking at 172.69 is by no means ordinary, but until the last match, that one defining knock had eluded him.
Story continues below this ad
“It was pretty scary to watch some of that batting,” said chuffed SRH skipper Pat Cummins. “They punished the bad balls but also hit the good balls,” rued his KKR counterpart Ajinkya Rahane. It was what many expected from SRH in IPL 2025, and while signing off, they offered a reminder of why they were feared before the season began.
One Narine over
On a night of carnage, let’s dwell on the 13th over of the SRH innings. Riding on the belligerence of Klaasen and Travis Head, they had reached 174/1 in 12 overs, a rate which would have gotten them to the brink of 300, at the very least. After the first over of the night went for two runs, SRH had scored at least 10 runs off every over until then.
Travis headlined #SRH‘s charge with blistering 76(40) 🔥
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 25, 2025
Up stepped Sunil Narine. After conceding a single off the first ball, he angled two deliveries from over the wicket wide outside Head’s off-stump. Two dot balls. Shocking scenes. The fourth ball was closer but still not enough for Head to get the right connection and a mishit was taken by Andre Russell at long off. New batter Ishan Kishan came in and played out two balls. In the middle of all the carnage, Narine delivered an over that probably prevented 300.
Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 278/3 in 20 overs (Klaasen 105, Head 76; Narine 2/42) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 168 all out in 18.4 overs (Manish Pandey 37; Harsh Dubey 3/34, Eshan Malinga 3/31) by 110 runs
