IPL 2026, SRH hand RR their first defeat: Key stats
What's the story
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) tamed Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday. Match 21 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 season saw SRH ride on Ishan Kishan's 91 to post 216/6 in 20 overs. In response, debutant Praful Hinge rattled the visitors with a fiery first over during their innings. He picked three wickets to floor the Royals. RR, who were 1/3, were reduced to 9/5 next. They ended up being bundled out for 159.
SRH highlights
Summary of SRH's innings
SRH lost Abhishek Sharma on the first ball of their innings. Kishan came and steadied the ship whereas Travis Head played 2nd fiddle in the stand of 55. Heinrich Klaasen came in at number four and built another partnership with Kishan. The latter looked in full flow and played his range of shots. Jofra Archer and Tushar Deshpande faced Kishan's brunt. Klaasen chipped in with 40 runs. Nitish Kumar Reddy (28) and Salil Arora (24*) helped SRH get to 216/6.
Information
How did the RR bowlers fare?
Jofra Archer picked 2/37 from his 4 overs. Nandre Burger went wicketless with 0/31 from 4 overs. Sandeep Sharma was costly. He managed 1/52. Tushar Deshpande also leaked runs (1/55). Ravi Bishnoi was flat and clocked 0/35 from three overs. Riyan Parag claimed 1/5 from a solitary over.
Abhishek
Abhishek Sharma records his 7th T20 duck in 2026
Abhishek threw his wicket away after wanting to go big on the first ball of SRH's innings. As per ESPNcricinfo, Abhishek owns 7 ducks in T20s this year from 18 matches. He has scored 452 runs at 26.58 (SR: 203.6). Notably, he owns 5 fifties. In the ongoing IPL 2026 season, this is now his 2nd duck. He managed a duck against Lucknow Super Giants on April 5. His scores in IPL 2026 read: 7, 48, 0, 74 and 0.
Information
16th T20 duck for Abhishek; 5th in IPL
Overall in T20s, this was the batter's 16th duck. From 186 matches (182 innings), Abhishek owns 5,370 runs at 32.34 (SR: 173.95). As many as 5 of his T20 ducks have come in the IPL from 82 matches at 27.01.
Kishan
19th IPL fifty from Kishan's blade; 2nd this season
Kishan's 91 came from 44 balls. He hit 8 fours and six sixes, striking at 206.82. With this knock, he now owns 3,211 runs from 124 IPL matches (117 innings) at 29.73, as per ESPNcricinfo. This was his 19th fifty (100s: 1). Kishan owns 213 runs in IPL 2026 from 5 matches at 42.60 (SR: 190.17). This was his 2nd fifty of the season.
Do you know?
Kishan gets past 6,500 runs in T20s
Making his 234th T20 appearance (225 innings), Kishan surpassed 6,500 runs in the 20-over format. He has amassed 6,532 runs at 31.1. This was his 37th T20 fifty. He also owns 7 hundreds.
Klaasen
Klaasen is the top scorer in IPL 2026
With his secured knock of 40 from 26 balls, Klaasen showed his mettle. He hit a four and three sixes. He is currently the Orange Cap holder with 224 runs from 5 matches this season at 44.80 (SR: 142.87). Overall in the IPL, the veteran batter has amassed 1,704 runs from 54 matches at 40.57. Klaasen is now three shy of 100 IPL sixes (97). In T20s, Klaasen is one shy of 350 sixes (349). He owns 6,410 runs.
Information
Reddy hits four sixes in his 28-run effort
Reddy scored a valuable 13-ball 28. He slammed four sixes. This season, the SRH all-rounder has amassed 124 runs from 5 matches at 31. He has struck at 161.03.
Information
Archer races to 245 wickets in T20s
Archer's 2/37 saw him get to a tally of 245 wickets in T20s. From 197 matches, the Englishman averages 23.57. As many as 66 of his T20 wickets have come in the IPL from 57 matches at 26.45.
Chase
Praful Hinge floors RR with magical three-wicket first over
Vidarbha pacer Praful picked three RR wickets in the 1st over. Notably, this was his IPL debut. Praful dismissed Vaibhav Sooryavanshi off his 2nd ball of the 1st over. The 15-year-old perished for a 1st-ball duck. Sooryavanshi wanted to go hard on a pull shot and ended up being caught. Dhruv Jurel then got out in the 4th ball of the over. He was castled after the ball derived an inside edge. Lhuan-dre Pretorius then perished after an attempted flick.
Information
RR get reduced to 9/5
Another SRH debutant Sakib Hussain then entered the wickets column. The pacer got Yashasvi Jaiswal's wicket in the 2nd over, reducing RR to 2/4. And then, Praful dismissed RR skipper Parag in the 3rd over as the visitors became 9/5.
Innings
A recovering century-plus stand on offer
Ravindra Jadeja and Donovan Ferreira got together and resurrected RR's innings. Jadeja hit Sakib for two fours in the 4th over. Ferreira then smashed Praful for a six and a four in the 5th over. Jadeja then hit Eshan Malinga for a four in the 6th over as RR finished on 40/5 in the powerplay. The pair went on to add a 118-run stand for the 6th wicket. It was a calming partnership that settled RR's nerves.
Information
Donovan Ferreira hammers his 11th T20 fifty
Ferreira fought valiantly for RR, scoring 69 runs off 44 balls. He slammed 7 fours and 3 sixes. This was the batter's 11th fifty in T20s. He owns 2,576 runs from 145 matches (121) innings. His strike rate is 166.83.
Jadeja
Jadeja scores 45 runs, surpasses 300 T20 fours
Jadeja scored an important 32-ball 45. He hit five fours during his stay at the crease. The veteran all-rounder, who recently went past 4,000 T20 runs, now has a tally of 4,061 from 351 matches (255 innings). He averages 26.71 with his strike rate being 130.57. Jadeja went past 300 T20 fours with his 2nd hit. He now owns 303 fours. In the IPL, he has scored 3,336 runs at 28.27 from 259 matches (201 innings).
Duo
SRH debutants Praful and Saqib claims four-fers
Praful finished with 4/34 from his 4 overs. On the other hand, Sakib managed 4/24 from his 4-over spell. Notably, Praful and Sakib became the 2nd and 3rd players from SRH to claim a four-fer against RR in the IPL. The duo joined Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who took 4/14 in the 2014 edition. The two also became the 7th and 8th bowlers respectively to pick four-fers on their IPL debut.
Information
A look at the points table
After 5 matches, RR still occupy the top place with 8 points. They own 4 wins and a defeat. SRH are placed 4th with 4 points. They have amassed two wins and three defeats from 5 matches this season.