Sunrisers Hyderabad’s decision to pick Praful Hinge in the IPL 2026 auction hardly created a stir. If anything, the loudest reaction was reserved for his surname, as was the dating app Hinge, which quickly became easy material for a few jokes in IPL circles at Hyderabad’s expense.
It turned out the jokes didn’t last long.
Now, if you are someone who has been active on dating apps and gone through the motions, you will know how this works. The culture of swiping left and right decides whether you are good enough or not. Add to that the whole angle of ghosting, baiting and many other terms in Gen-Z lingo and you can conclude that the dating scene is complicated.
IPL 2026, SRH vs RR: HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD
But on Monday, April 13, SRH found themselves right in front of a new hero, while RR were enveloped in Uppal by a bowler who seemed to be ahead from the start.. The 24-year-old pacer came in like a house on fire and had money.
He started with the wicket of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and followed it up with the clean-up of Dhruva Jurela and the better of Lhuan-dre Pretorius.
Watch the video here:
Hinge came back and then dismissed Riyan Parag to leave RR at nine for five in three overs.
Four wickets in his first two overs in the IPL. Not a bad start at all.
Hinge talked about making a perfect debut and planning the scalp of Sooryavanshi. But there was an element of baiting the batters.
And that brings us to the latest edition of India Today’s Play Of The Day, where we take a closer look at how Hinge managed to shake up RR’s batting order and cause them to collapse.
HINGE LEAVES CRUSH
If you’re not used to Gen-Z lingo when it comes to dating, there’s a term known as breadcrumbs. According to its meaning on the Internet, it is a manipulative dating tactic where a person sends sporadic, flirtatious messages or “crumbs” of attention to attract someone, without any intention of committing or making concrete plans.
And if you look at what happened in the first two overs from Hinge, it was exactly that. Let’s start the delivery to Sooryavanshi.
It was almost a foregone conclusion that the RR starboy would attack from ball one against the SRH bowling line-up. He did the same against Bumrah and Hazlewood.
Even Hing expected it and followed it with the ball put into the stands by Sooryavanshi on any given day. The only difference was a little extra pace and bounce.
“I’ve already told a couple of people that I’m going to get him on the first ball, either with a bouncer or some other way. I just wanted his wicket on the first ball. That was the plan,” Hinge said.
Jurela’s goal was another great set-up. First ball to the RR keeper tried to get him to run out. He then produced a similar ball, but this time he forced a mistake from Jurel and forced him to shoot at an angle. A fallen stump was uprooted.
The third wicket in the Over, Pretorius, was another example of Hinge crushing the RR batter. It wasn’t goalkeeping, not in the slightest.
The ball landed squarely on the pads and the South African batsman flicked it effortlessly. On any other day it would have been a six or a boundary but luck was with the SRH paceman as the fielder was in place to take the catch.
In his second over, Riyan largely negated the effect of Hinge. He was getting behind the ball and making sure there was no danger.
A good delivery from the pacer sent the RR skipper to the boundary and everyone felt the spell was over. But that was when Hinge had the last bit of breadcrumbs in his pocket.
He dropped the van from the outside and swerved slightly. This enticed Riyan to embark on an expansion drive as needed.
But Hinge made a mistake here. The RR skipper’s legs showed no movement and he just found the edge straight to slip. And that was all it took to destroy the top order of Rajasthan’s batting line-up. Ishan Kishan may have unlocked SRH’s bowling savior for IPL 2026. (AP Photo)
All four wickets did not come from unplayable deliveries. It was all just decoys put in front of the RR batsmen and they kept going for the trick.
While it’s essential to have a magic delivery or two in your arsenal, here Hinge has just used a trick to entice the batter to be a bit greedy and go for it before picking up his wickets.
Pant seems to be a smart investment for SRH that they didn’t have to pay a premium for. Rs 30 lakh looks like a bargain at the moment and if he continues to use this tactic of throwing carrots in front of the batter, he can become one of SRH’s bowlers in the near future.
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Issued by:
Debodinna Chakraborty
Published on:
14 Apr 2026 07:46 IST
