Rajasthan Royals enjoy thumping win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their IPL opener

Rajasthan Royals started their Indian Premier League campaign with a thumping 61-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in Pune on Tuesday.

Captain Sanju Samson lead the way for his side – top-scoring with a quick-fire half-century – while Jos Buttler (35), Devdutt Padikkal (41) and Shimron Hetmyer (32) all made big-hitting contributions as the Royals bludgeoned their way to 210-6.

In response, Hyderabad had their innings strangled at the start by the superb opening bowling of quicks Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna and found themselves languishing on 37-5 after 10.2 overs. Captain Kane Williamson, Rahul Tripathi, Nicholas Pooran, Abhishek Sharma and Abdul Samad all failed to reach double figures.

Some late big-hitting from Aiden Markram (57 not out) and Washington Sundar (40) dragged the score to 149-7 after 20 overs but did not disguise the fact Williamson's side had been comprehensively outplayed.

Boult and Krishna finished with 2-23 and 2-16, respectively, from their four overs while leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal claimed three wickets to reach 250 scalps in T20 matches.

“It was a very different wicket than what we thought. If you bowled Test match lengths, the wicket was helping fast bowlers,” said Samson after the match.”

Asked about his goals for the coming season, he added: “No long term goals, just want to win as much as possible and contribute to team's victory.

“[I'm] Working on my fitness, game awareness, understanding conditions, and choosing my scoring options. Not rushing. I would like to spend lot of time in the middle knowing I can catch up anytime.”

Samson earned the player of the match award for his blistering innings in what was his 100th match for Royals who won the inaugural Indian Premier League edition