In a fearless display of intent, Priyansh Arya of Punjab Kings hit CSK’s Khaleel Ahmed for a six off the very first ball of the 22nd fixture of IPL 2025. In the process, he became only the fourth batter in the history of the league to do so and joined the ranks of Virat Kohli and Phil Salt. PBKS hosted CSK at Chandigarh in the 22nd fixture of IPL 2025 season. Chennai, reeling from 3 big losses, needed a win to keep their campaign alive whereas Punjab have started the season well with 2 wins in 3 games.
While Punjab Kings batted first, opener Priyansh Arya unleashed carnage right from ball one to script rare history. Khaleel Ahmed opened the bowling for CSK but PBKS’ young opener Priyansh Arya was ready to take him on early. Facing the very first ball of the match, Arya didn’t bother with sighters. Khaleel, trying to test the batter early with a back-of-a-length delivery and some width, was met with a stunning counterpunch. Priyansh freed his arms and upper-cut the ball over deep backward point, sending it soaring into the crowd for a six. With that big hit, Priyansh Arya joined an elite list of players who have hit a six off the first ball of an IPL match, alongside names like Naman Ojha, Virat Kohli, and Phil Salt. But Arya’s was arguably the most stylish, with his cool uppercut drawing instant comparisons to white-ball greats.
Batters to Hit a Six on the First Ball of an IPL match:
That being said, the first ball six was just the beginning of Priyansh’s assault. Despite wickets falling from the other end, he batted fearlessly to slam a 19-ball blazing fifty consisting of 5 fours and 4 sixes. Meanwhile, Punjab Kings lost wickets in clusters in the powerplay. Khaleel Ahmed breathed fire with two big wickets of Shreyas Iyer and Marcus Stoinis. Before that, Mukesh Choudhary struck first to remove opener Prabhsimran Singh on a 2-ball duck. With just 54 runs on the board, PBKS had 3 big wickets in the powerplay. Punjab lost Singh, Iyer, Stoinis and Wadhera on 0, 9, 4 and 9 respectively as Arya was left stranded on one end.
On the very second ball, though, Arya could have been caught and bowled, but Khaleel dropped a relatively easier catch. Priyansh Arya hit a first-ball six against Khaleel Ahmed in the Punjab Kings (PBKS)’ clash against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on April 8 (Tuesday) at the Maharaja Yadvinder Singh Stadium in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh. With that feat, Arya joined Indian great Virat Kohli in an elite list of only four players who had hit a six on the very first ball of the innings. Apart from Arya and Kohli, Phil Salt and Naman Ojha are the only other players who have hit a six on the first ball of the innings in Indian Premier League (IPL) history.
Utilizing that opportunity, Arya went on to become the fifth Punjab Kings batter to complete his fifty in the powerplay. The southpaw took only 19 balls to get to the milestone. Khaleel dropped a catch off Arya on the second ball. Arya reached his half century off just 19 balls. Punjab Kings won the toss and opted to bat first against Chennai Super Kings on April 8, 2025. Both teams remained unchanged for this match. At the time of writing, Punjab had already lost one wicket with Prabhsimran Singh being clean bowled by Mukesh Choudhary for a duck.
At the time of writing, Punjab had lost half of their side with 83 runs on the board. Punjab Kings, CSK playing XI:
Punjab Kings (Playing XI): Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Nehal Wadhera, Glenn Maxwell, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Lockie Ferguson, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Praveen Dubey, Azmatullah Omarzai, Vyshak Vijaykumar.
Chennai Super Kings (Playing XI): Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Vijay Shankar, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(w), Ravichandran Ashwin, Noor Ahmad, Mukesh Choudhary, Khaleel Ahmed, Matheesha Pathirana.
Chennai Super Kings Impact Subs: Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton, Rahul Tripathi, Deepak Hooda, Anshul Kamboj.
Priyansh Arya has become the fourth player in the history of IPL to hit a six off the first ball, against CSK in the over of Khaleel Ahmed on April 8, 2025. IPL 2025 is the maiden IPL season of Priyansh Arya, who is associated with the Punjab Kings. Priyansh Arya is a 24-year-old player who came into the limelight due to his six sixes in an over in the Delhi Premier League. PBKS signed him for INR 3.8 crore. In the match against Mumbai Indians, Phil Salt smashed a first-ball six off Nuvan Thusara's over and became the third batter in IPL history to do that. Virat Kohli hit the first ball for six against RR's Varun Aron in 2019.
The most successful batter of IPL, Virat Kohli, has 8168 runs for RCB in 256 games. During the 53rd game of IPL 2009, RR vs KKR, Naman Ojha came out to open the RR innings with Rob Quiney. He was facing the first ball of the game and smashed a six over deep square leg of Brad Hodge's ball. He slammed two more sixes in that over.
Thanks For Reading!
