Starc takes five as SRH fold for 163 despite Aniket's 74

Aniket Verma, 23, is all of three T20s old. On Sunday, he showed why Sunrisers Hyderabad have so much faith in him. While his team collapsed for the second time in two games in IPL 2025, with their hard-hitting approach not coming off, Aniket's incredible 41-ball 74 lifted them to 163 after Mitchell Starc's three-wicket burst in the powerplay derailed them.

Aniket hit five fours and six sixes in his innings, twinning with Heinrich Klaasen during the course of a 77-run stand off just 40 balls, after SRH were in tatters at 37 for 4 in the fifth over.

After Abhishek Sharma was run out in the first over, guilty of strolling through for a single he was late to respond to, Starc had Ishan Kishan slash to deep third, local boy Nitish Reddy heave an off-cutter to mid-on, and Travis Head ramp a short ball to KL Rahul, who had the gloves in his first game for Delhi Capitals, his new franchise.

Head's wicket was timely; he began with two back-to-back fours off Starc - driving imperiously through the line first and then drilling him down the ground. Starc responded by targeting his rib cage from around the stumps. Eventually, Starc, who was given a third straight over, had his man.

Aniket began with dollops of luck. In the fourth over, he survived a run-out chance when Tristan Stubbs missed a direct hit at the striker's end with the batter having given up. In the sixth, Aniket's leading edge off Axar Patel was put down by Abishek Porel running back from extra cover.

Aniket took full toll and hit Axar for back-to-back sixes in his second over to get going. At the other end, Klaasen's clarity and picking of lengths led to more runs bleeding. He first whipped Starc for six, and when the bowler corrected his length, he slapped it through the off side for a boundary.

Klaasen looked set when he was deceived by Mohit Sharma's change of pace and length as he sliced a catch to Vipraj Nigam, who took it sensationally after circling back from point to leave SRH 114 for 5 in 10.5 overs. The slide from there on was quick as Kuldeep Yadav got among the wickets and finished with 3 for 22.

After Pat Cummins was been dismissed, Aniket threatened a jailbreak as he tore into Axar for a sequence of 4, 6, 6 before he was out courtesy of Jake Fraser-McGurk's athleticism at deep midwicket. If that was a stunner, Axar throwing himself full stretch to his left to intercept a rocket hit off Harshal Patel at mid-off matched that as SRH were bundled out inside 20 overs with Starc finishing with five wickets.