Left-handed batter Ishan Kishan reinforced Sunrisers Hyderabad's intention of breaching the 300-run mark in the 18th season of the Indian Premier League as his century set up a comfortable 44-run win over Rajasthan Royals in another high-scoring match in Hyderabad on Sunday.
Kishan cracked an unbeaten 106 off 47 balls with 11 fours and six sixes on his Hyderabad debut to help post a massive score of 286-6.
The total just fell of Hyderabad's own record of the highest-ever IPL innings total of 287-3 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru last year.
The Rajiv Gandhi Stadium is one of the flattest wickets in the competition and it did not disappoint Sunrisers fans as they got to witness the devastating opening of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma pick up from where they left off last season.
Head (67 from 31) and Abhishek (24 from 11) gave another rapid start and Kishan also upped the ante, taking the score past 130 at the halfway mark.
Kishan and the rest of the top order was particularly severe on Rajasthan's main bowler and England pacer Jofra Archer, who returned the most expensive bowling figures in IPL.
Archer was smashed for 76 runs in his four overs, which eclipsed the analysis of Gujarat Titans' seamer Mohit Sharma who went for 73 last year.
Archer had a poor start as he gave away 23 runs in his first over with Head hitting him for four fours and a six.
After Head departed, Kishan took over and remained unbeaten.
Nitish Kumar Reddy, who hit 30 off 15 balls, and Heinrich Klaasen, who hit a 14-ball 34, boosted the total with their explosive cameos.
Rajasthan pace bowler Tushar Deshpande claimed three wickets, including that of Head.
In all, last year's finalists Hyderabad hit 34 fours and 12 sixes. As it turned out, Hyderabad needed that cushion of runs as Rajasthan gave a good fight.
Sanju Samson, who is injured and being used as an impact player, hit 66 from 37 balls while fellow wicketkeeper batsman Dhruv Jurel kept the fight going with 70 off 35 balls.
However, both set players got out in successive overs after taking the score to 161-3 in the 14th over.
Shimron Hetmyer (42 from 23) kept up the tempo as Rajasthan finished on 242-6, reducing the margin of defeat and lessening the impact of the loss on their net run rate.
For Hyderabad, captain Pat Cummins had an off day as he was hit for 60 from his four overs. Seamer Harshal Patel was the standout performer, giving away just 34 runs and taking two wickets.
After the win, player-of-the-match Kishan said the confidence shown in him by the management eased his nerves.
"The nervousness was there, I won't deny that. Pat and the coach gave a lot of confidence. I just enjoyed my time in the middle. You see Abhishek and Head playing that sort of game, and you get that confidence," the left-hander said.
Rajasthan stand-in captain Riyan Parag defended his decision to bowl first.
"I feel collectively we took the decision to bowl, it was the right decision. We were neither here nor there with the ball, could've done better," he said.
"We could've restricted them... at toss I said 200 something like that, 220-240 would've been a good score to chase down."
