Sunrisers Hyderabad’s top order batsman Heinrich Klaasen batted brilliantly against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and scored a century in 37 balls. This is the joint third fastest century in IPL history. Heinrich Klaasen has equaled Yusuf Pathan who scored a century in the same number of balls against Mumbai Indians in 2010.
Heinrich Klaasen has scored the second fastest century of this season. Before him, Rajasthan Royals’ young batsman Vaibhav Suryavanshi had scored a century in 35 balls against Gujarat Titans. This is also Heinrich Klaasen’s second century in IPL. With the help of his powerful innings, Sunrisers scored the third highest score in IPL history.
This is the second time in IPL that Heinrich Klaasen has scored a century while batting at number three. With this, Klaasen has joined the list of batsmen who have scored the most centuries in IPL while batting at number three or lower.
On the basis of Heinrich Klaasen’s century and Travis Head’s half-century, Sunrisers Hyderabad has set a target of 279 runs for Kolkata Knight Riders. Hyderabad won the toss and elected to bat first and scored 278 runs in 20 overs by losing three wickets. For them, right-handed batsman Heinrich Klaasen played the highest unbeaten innings of 105 runs. Travis Head was dismissed after scoring 76 runs in 40 balls. For KKR, Sunil Narine took two wickets and Vaibhav Arora took one wicket.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : “We are in the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, for the final time this season but the pitch that is going to be used here this evening is a fresh one. It hasn’t been used so far this season. Let’s have a look at the dimensions because there is a bias – 67m and 60m square boundaries, straight down is 73m. Irrespective of the pitches, this venue has been a high-scoring one.
This is wicket no. 6, nothing played here yet but I think the story is going to be pretty much similar. If you look at the wicket, lot of dry grass, it’s been rolled really well, there’s a nice sheen coming from the lights, but I think it’s bad news fast bowlers, good news spinners because in the middle, the spinners can control the game really well. KKR are going to be really happy looking at this wicket.
It’s got cracks, but the cracks are not opening up anytime soon, that’s for sure. The sheen would mean that it’s coming on to the bat nicely but the only issue is bounce, it generally stays a little low here at this venue. That makes the fast bowlers target the stumps.
You target the stumps, get lbw and bowled in play and you can be amongst the wickets. But if you’re wide on these small boundaries, you’re gonna go for plenty. This is a really good pitch to bat on, be careful it might stay a little low, that’s about it.
Lot of credit to Ankit (curator) and his team of groundsmen here. It’s been raining quite heavily, last couple of days, they’ve managed to prepare a really good pitch, especially if you’re a batter.” reckons Deep Dasgupta and Varun Aaron
Toss : Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins won the toss and chose to bat with no changes in the playing XI. KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane who also wanted to bowl first also made no changes in their playing XI.
Heinrich Klassen’s classy 37 ball ton and Travis Head’s onslaught powers SRH to 278 for 3 in 20 overs
Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma put on the opening act before the Klassen Show stormed the next two phases. The duo kickstarted the carnage in the second over from Anrich Nortje, taking 20 off it. Head then laid into Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana as SRH got to 55 in just four overs. Abhishek attempted to catch up to his opening partner in the fifth over, hitting Nortje for two fours but Head stole another big march by capping off the PowerPlay with a six and a four in a 13-run sixth over.
The KKR bowlers truly felt the heat of facing a batting line-up like SRH in a skewed venue like Delhi through this breathtaking phase of play. Abhishek smashed two successive sixes and perished on the next ball off Sunil Narine in the seventh over, taking the West Indian’s wickets tally in the format to 209 – the most in men’s cricket.
Before Heinrich Klaasen’s fireworks, Travis Head had laid the foundation with a commanding 76 off 40 balls. Head started superbly against Vaibhav Arora, someone he has struggled previously against, and raced to his fifty in 26 balls. That drove SRH to 79 without loss in the powerplay. Abhishek Sharma’s quick 32 from 16 balls ensured SRH capitalised fully on KKR’s early struggles. By the eighth over, SRH were already 109 for 1.
SRH unleashed Heinrich Klaasen at one of KKR’s biggest strengths – their spinners, and came away well on top. At first, Heinrich Klaasen watched on as Head continued to throw his bat at almost every delivery en route to a 26-ball half-century – his third of the season. But in the same over – from Varun CV, Heinrich Klaasen hit the first of his nine sixes – also his 300th in the format.
After conceding 16 in his first over, Varun CV went for 20 in his next over as both Head and Klaasen continued the offensive against spin. Head started off with a six and Heinrich Klaasen hit a hattrick of fours to take SRH to a jaw-dropping 139/1 at the half-way stage. Ajinkya Rahane looked in different directions for bowling options, but couldn’t find one to put a lid on the run-making.
Andre Russell was welcomed with a 17-run over and Harshit Rana returned to concede 22 as Heinrich Klaasen went after him with a four and two sixes and reached his 17-ball fifty. Narine earned his side a breather in the 13th over, conceding just one run and dismissing Head. But Heinrich Klaasen made up for the six-ball lull by smashing Narine for two sixes in his next to take SRH past 200 with 32 balls still to go.
Klaasen’s innings was a study in clean striking. He smashed nine sixes and seven fours, reaching his fifty in just 17 balls at a strike rate of 300 – his fastest in T20 cricket. From there, he didn’t let up, punishing anything short or full and driving straight with conviction to finish unbeaten on 105 off 39 balls.
Ishan Kishan slowed SRH down a touch but Heinrich Klaasen was nonetheless on course to a record century. He eventually got there off 37 balls – joint-third fastest with Yusuf Pathan. Kishan too added to SRH’s burgeoning tally of fours and sixes too, before falling to Arora in the penultimate over for 29 off 20 balls.
Ishan Kishan added a crucial 29-ball 40, rotating strike intelligently and finding gaps along the way too. The Heinrich Klaasen-Kishan pair brought up a fifty partnership for the third wicket in just 20 balls, maintaining the momentum as the innings surged towards what looked like a record-breaking total. Heinrich Klaasen’s century arrived off the final ball of the 19th over, and SRH ended on a mammoth 278 for 3 – the third highest total in IPL history. Aniket Verma’s late flourish, with 12 in six balls, helped too.
Arora’s seven-run over was the only one in the death where SRH got single-digit scores as the Heinrich Klaasen carnage went well into the death overs. He punished Varun once again with two sixes and took on Russell and Nortje. SRH finished their incredible innings on 278/3 – with 22 fours and 19 sixes.
The KKR bowlers never found a consistent length. Anrich Nortje and Arora leaked runs early, while even Narine and Varun Chakravarthy couldn’t stop the flow in the middle overs. Narine’s 13th over provided a rare moment of calm – dismissing Head and conceding just a single, the only over without a boundary since the opening one. But that was short-lived, as Heinrich Klaasen launched Narine for back-to-back sixes in his final over to bring up SRH’s 200 in the 15th.
Nortje ended up conceding 60 in his four overs, while Varun Chakravarthy went for 54 in three as SRH posted 278 for 3, the third-highest IPL total of all time.
Jaydev Unadkat, Harsh Dubey and Eshan Malinga’s 3-fers fizzle out KKR for mere 168 runs to end the season with a thumping 110 run victory.
Staring at a mountain of runs to chase down, Sunil Narine started off with three sixes and two fours off two Pat Cummins overs. Jaydev Unadkat however, cleaned him up with an off-cutter that the West Indian failed to read. With this, KKR became only the third team in the history of the tournament to not have an opening stand worth 50 runs in an entire season.
Narine gave KKR’s chase a spectacular start, hammering three sixes and a four off Pat Cummins’ first two overs. But Unadkat turned the tide, deceiving Narine with a slower ball to rattle his leg stump. The wicket also meant KKR became only the third team – after Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008 and Deccan Chargers in 2010 – to finish a season with no fifty-run opening stands.
KKR bowlers didn’t resort to change of pace but it came in handy in the second innings as Unadkat repeatedly showed on the night. Ajinkya Rahane arrived all guns blazing to keep KKR’s scoring rate at 10 an over but Unadkat clipped his wings in the sixth over with another cutter as the KKR captain miscued a big hit and was caught at cover.
Eshan Malinga ended Quinton de Kock’s misery in the middle by taking him out in the seventh over. KKR quickly slipped to 70/5 in the eighth over as left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey struck twice in two balls. Rinku Singh smashed a low full-toss straight into the hands of Nitish Reddy at deep square leg while Andre Russell was bamboozled by drift and turn to get squared up and trapped leg before.
Ajinkya Rahane’s brief 15 off eight balls showed promise, but he too fell to Unadkat, while Quinton de Kock’s struggles persisted. De Kock’s 13-ball nine ending tamely against a full toss from Malinga. Dubey then took centre stage, removing Rinku Singh and Andre Russell in consecutive deliveries in the eighth over. Russell didn’t even wait for the umpire’s decision after being trapped lbw first ball, leaving KKR in tatters at 70 for 5.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Manish Pandey dragged the chasing side to 81/5 at the halfway mark but Malinga returned in the 12th over to end that partnership. He too went for change of pace and had Raghuvanshi miscuing his shot deep square leg. Dubey picked his third when he cleaned up Ramandeep Singh in the 14th over to leave KKR seven down and on the verge of massive defeat. Harshit Rana arrived with other intentions as he hit two sixes off Abhishek.
With Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s laboured 18 and Ramandeep Singh also falling in the middle overs, the game looked beyond salvage for KKR. But Rana and Pandey provided a late spark. Rana smashed three sixes in his first seven balls, while Pandey rediscovered some fluency with a few crisp shots. They took 21 runs off the 16th over, briefly denting Malinga’s tidy figures.
However, the late surge only delayed the inevitable. Pandey was out for 37 to an Unadkat slower-ball in the 18th over, and next ball Arora was run-out by Unadkat owing to his lazy running. Rana was the last to fall for 34 off 21 balls, with Malinga completing a caught-and-bowled effort to wrap up the innings at 168.
The equation was gargantuan but Manish Pandey took to it with three sixes off Malinga in a 21-run over. He and Rana added 52 off 22 balls before Unadkat ended the stand with Pandey’s wicket. A switch to a drier ball before the over seemed to have done the trick as Unadkat dished out another slower one for a wicket. Arora was then run on the next ball, failing to ground his bat as he perhaps didn’t expect Unadkat to take a shy at the stumps at his end. Malinga then took out Harshit in the penultimate over to pick up a 110-run victory.
Presentations and Takeaways for SRH and KKR
Ajinkya Rahane the losing KKR skipper said : I thought they batted really well, Yes, we made few errors while bowling, but the way they batted, they capitalised on all the loose balls and also hit all the good balls as well. Credit goes to SRH batters, their intent was really great.
We did discuss about bowling slower balls, bowling wider, bowling wide slower balls as well but sometimes if the bowlers don’t execute the plan really well, then batters like Klaasen and all the SRH batters … they batted really well. We were short on our execution part but also made lot many errors throughout the innings as a bowling unit.
Throughout the season, we had our moments, we had our chances, 2-3 close games which we thought we didn’t play well as a team, as a unit. Apart from that, we tried our best, we gave our best. A format like this, you got to be switched on every time. This format is really tough, this IPL is really tough.
As a team, we had those chances, we had those moments, we would have been probably number one or two in the table. But, no regrets, lots to learn from this season. All the players tried their best, gave their best. We’ll come back really stronger next year.
Pat Cummins the winning SRH skipper said : Amazing finish. The last few games of the season, lots of things clicked and it was scary to watch that kind of batting. With the calibre of the players we have, we can’t play any worse than what we did earlier. With the players we have, we should be making the finals, this year we didn’t.
We get wickets like here, we got to max out and get 250-260 and other ones where we need to graft and get to 170 which we didn’t. Quite a few people got opportunities, we looked at each one of them when selecting a team, but couldn’t fit them in. Really happy with the squad we have got, few players went with injures back home, we used 20 players.
Heinrich Klassen Player of the Match for 105 runs said : Amazing finish. The last few games of the season, lots of things clicked and it was scary to watch that kind of batting. With the calibre of the players we have, we can’t play any worse than what we did earlier. With the players we have, we should be making the finals, this year we didn’t.
We get wickets like here, we got to max out and get 250-260 and other ones where we need to graft and get to 170 which we didn’t. Quite a few people got opportunities, we looked at each one of them when selecting a team, but couldn’t fit them in. Really happy with the squad we have got, few players went with injures back home, we used 20 players.
Heinrich Klaasen treated the Delhi crowd to a superlative 37-ball century as Sunrisers Hyderabad closed out their underwhelming season with a massive win over 2024 champions Kolkata Knight Riders. Klaasen smashed seven fours and nine sixes on his way to a whirlwind unbeaten 105 as SRH posted the third highest total in IPL history – 278 – and defended it comfortably.
Middle overs. SRH smashed 125 runs in this period, with 92 of it coming in just fours and sixes. This was when Heinrich Klaasen flexed his big-hitting muscles and Rahane and his star spinners just did not have any answers for it. In contrast, KKR lost two of the big hitters – Rinku Singh and Andre Russell – to the spin of Harsh Dubey and fell way behind in chase.
Heinrich Klaasen’s batting heroics were the centrepiece of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s (SRH) innings in Delhi, as his unbeaten 39-ball 105 set up a comfortable 110-run win against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). His breathtaking century – the joint-third fastest in IPL history – came off just 37 balls and left KKR chasing an improbable 279 to win.
KKR’s fall was swift, barring a few big hits from Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey and Harshit Rana along the way. SRH stifled them with Jaydev Unadkat’s change-ups earning him 3 for 24, left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey grabbing 3 for 34 and Eshan Malinga finishing with 3 for 31. SRH’s win, that ended a five-game losing streak to KKR, lifted them temporarily up to sixth (Lucknow Super Giants could overtake them if they win their last league match). KKR are eighth and both teams completed their IPL 2025 campaigns for the season on different notes.
SRH end their campaign on a fine note. They have hammered KKR here to sort of gain some revenge for their final loss last year. it was set up by the batters led by Head and Klaasen and then the bowlers used the scoreboard pressure to get the wickets. KKR needed a similar batting performance from their batters but it was not to be.
Three contributions from Narine, Manish and Harshit Rana but the highest among them was just 37 which was never enough. SRH smartly used the slower-balls to great effect with Eshan Malinga, Unadkat and Harshal Patel using them effectively. Harsh Dubey who came in as an impact player once again impressed and picked up a three-fer. A collective bowling effort aided by some good catching helps SRH to a big win. That’s why before the customary post-match handshakes, SRH’s team were all smiles.
SRH showing everyone what they can do with bat if they get it right. They did it consistently last season and reached the final as a result of that. Not this year and that’s why they haven’t qualified for the playoffs. But a timely reminder that next season, this marauding batting unit will be back. Watch out bowlers!
Also Read:KKR vs SRH : Records Galore After SRH Decimate KKR