There were three Indian left-handed top-order batters running riot in Jaipur on Saturday – Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for Rajasthan Royals; Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The trio engaged in a prolonged game of one-upmanship, dazzling an electric crowd at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium with their batting flair in the venue’s first IPL game of the season.

The opening riposte came from Sooryavanshi’s blade. The 15-year-old, banking on his outrageous gift of timing, blazed away to a 36-ball hundred as Royals thundered to 228 for six after being inserted.

Royals’ seemingly mammoth target, though, couldn’t withstand the combined counter-punch from Kishan and Abhishek. The southpaw duo’s 132-run second-wicket partnership laid the foundation for SRH’s emphatic five-wicket win – its sixth consecutive triumph against the Royals.

Playing no small part in SRH’s win was a sub-par fielding effort from the home team. Even the ever-reliable Ravindra Jadeja dropped a catch – of Abhishek when he was batting on 30.

Unbothered by all of it, Kishan and Abhishek unleashed mayhem early on as they cut and slashed at anything remotely wide of the stumps to take SRH to 89 for one in the PowerPlay.

The onslaught persisted into the middle overs, against spin and pace alike. The SRH pair kept piercing the gaps to find boundaries, much to Royals’ exasperation.

Royals had a glimmer of hope when SRH lost both Kishan and Abhishek by the 13th over. But Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy were quick to extinguish that, as the away team coasted home with nine balls to spare.

Earlier, Sooryavanshi enthralled the home crowd with in an assortment of murderous pulls, sweetly-timed lofted drives and disdainful flicks.

He ignited his innings by walloping pacer Praful Hinge for four back-to-back sixes in the first over. There was an unmissable air of grudge-settling in that onslaught – Hinge had, after all, dismissed Sooryavanshi for a golden duck in the reverse fixture.

Sooryavanshi’s pyrotechnics were complemented by a classy fifty from Dhruv Jurel, with the two adding 112 runs for the second wicket.

Jurel was largely content playing second fiddle to the flying Sooryavanshi. But there were sparks of intent from the wicket-keeper batter, none more imposing than a flick-off-the-pad six against Eshan Malinga that landed outside the stadium.

Meanwhile, Sooryavanshi sizzled on, before being dismissed right after he got to his hundred. As he trudged back to the dugout, an adoring Jaipur crowd offered him a standing ovation – a gesture that looks set to be a routine exercise for them in the years to come.

Unfortunately for the Royals’ faithful, the game was to go downhill for them from there on.