Not many teams can reach 100 in the 10th over, after losing four wickets for just 37 runs in the first 25 balls of the innings. Sunrisers Hyderabad did just that, after losing Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Travis Head against Delhi Capitals during their IPL 2025 game on Sunday in Visakhapatnam.
One would assume that it was hard-hitting Heinrich Klaasen, who did the bulk of the damage. Instead it Aniket Verma, a 23-year-old from Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, playing his only third IPL game, who relegated the dashing South African to the sidelines.
Who’s Aniket Verma?
Aniket Verma, the 23-year old from Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi made his professional T20 debut after last year’s mega auction. He made a golden duck. So, why would the SRH management play him?
Aniket Verma proved his six-hitting credentials in the Madhya Pradesh T20 league. Aniket smashed 273 runs in just 6 innings, smashing 12 fours and 25 sixes. 150 out of 273 runs through sixes, that’s 55% of his total runs.
Aniket continued that six hitting form by smashing his 2nd ball for a six on his IPL debut. The next game against Lucknow Super Giants got better. Aniket faced just 13 balls and smoked 5 huge sixes, 2 off Digvesh Rathi and 3 off Ravi Bishnoi, the man with 61 wickets in T20Is.
The best was yet to come, thanks partly to Delhi Capitals’ Abishek Porel. Abishek dropped Aniket verma for just 7 runs and Aniket made the most of the dropped chance. Aniket got out for a 41-ball 74, and scored exactly half the team runs (148) at the time of his dismissal. He was extremely severe against the DC skipper, Axar Patel, smashing 34 runs off just 15 balls, including 4 sixes. At the time of his dismissal, Aniket had 12 sixes, just 1 behind the tournament leader Nicholas Pooran.
The next time Aniket comes to bat, teams will be scared to bowl a spinner to him.
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