Stand-in captain Ishan Kishan smashed a blazing fifty as Sunrisers Hyderabad resisted Jacob Duffy‘s excellent spell but managed only a slightly below-par 201 for nine against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL 2026 season opener on Saturday. Kishan (80 off 38 balls; 8x4s, 5x6s) and his 97-run stand with Heinrich Klaasen (31) for the fourth wicket formed the core of the SRH innings. Kishan is now the highest scorer for SRH on debut as captain.
However, the match had a very different start once RCB skipper Rajat Patidar asked Hyderabad to bat first on a pitch that had been deprived of top-flight cricket for nearly 10 months.
The surface was an unknown commodity, and chasing seemed the better option in that context.
Duffy’s spell of 4-0-22-3 vindicated that thinking. The Kiwi pacer used his height well to extract considerable bounce from the track, and Abhishek Sharma (7) looked frustrated as he struggled to free his arms, despite carving Duffy for a six over backward point.
The left-hander, who has often looked uncomfortable against the short ball, soon succumbed to his frustration as an awkward pull off Duffy ended in the big gloves of Jitesh Sharma.
Earlier, RCB had burned a DRS review for a caught-behind appeal against Abhishek off Duffy in the very first over.
Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy also failed to control their pull shots against Duffy as SRH slipped to 29 for three in 4.2 overs, with the visitors ending the Powerplay at 49 for three.
But Kishan was never really bogged down by the situation or the opposition, batting with oodles of bravado.
The left-hander brought up his fifty in just 27 balls with a four off leg-spinner Suyash Sharma, and his blitz was studded with some sparkling hits.
Abhinandan Singh bore the brunt of Kishan’s wrath as the stand-in skipper carted him for 6, 4, and 6. Spinner Krunal Pandya was later hammered for two sixes in an over.
A mighty blow over third man off Abhinandan carried Kishan to 80, and a century looked there for the taking.
However, the pacer had the last laugh as Kishan fell to a stunning one-handed diving catch by Phil Salt near deep backward point – one that could rank high among the best catches of the season.
Kishan’s dismissal robbed SRH of momentum in the death overs, despite Aniket Verma (43 off 19 balls) playing a handy knock down the order. Verma was dropped on 26 by Virat Kohli off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Still, the Hyderabad outfit could manage only 59 runs in the final five overs.