BRIEF SCORE, SRH vs KKR: Kolkata Knight Riders (169 for 3 in 18.2 overs) beat SunRisers Hyderabad (165-all out in 19 overs) by seven wickets in their IPL 2026 match on Sunday. Scorecard | Highlighting
Three wins out of three. Six points from the wilderness. The once unthinkable resurrection of KKR now looks a little more plausible, at least for the believers.
KKR and Varun Chakravarthy sang a song of redemption on Sunday as they edged past SunRisers Hyderabad in their IPL 2026 reverse fixture in Hyderabad. After restricting a power-packed SRH to a sub-par 165, the three-time champions crossed the finish line with something to spare, riding on a fluent fifty from Angkrish Raghuvanshi and a steely 43 from under-fire skipper Ajinkya Rahane.
Varun Chakravarthy, who cut a forlorn figure in the opening weeks of the season, looked every inch the bowler who once made batting lineups look silly – bowling slower than usual, teasing, troubling and inviting errors from the SunRisers batsmen. He finished with figures of 3 for 36, while his twin Sunil Narine – who completed 200 IPL wickets on Sunday – chipped in with two of his own. Together, they spun a web so intricate that SRH never found a way out.
SunRisers Hyderabad came into this competition as firm favourites, eyeing their sixth straight win and top spot in the points table. However, KKR had other ideas and delivered a rather sharp wake-up call, stitching together a third win in a row to loudly announce that they are still in this tournament.
After going winless in their first six matches, KKR were staring into the abyss. Six points from three games later, the Knight Riders clawed their way back from the brink, their slim playoff hopes flickering – battered but defiantly alive.
GREAT COMEBACK WITH THE BALL
In many ways, the afternoon contest was a neat microcosm of KKR’s season: scrappy starts, moments of crisis and then – almost out of nowhere – belief. SunRisers chose to bat on a pitch that played significantly more two-pace than it looked. Their senior destroyers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head took to the KKR attack with familiar gusto, racing to 44 in 3.3 overs. Kartik Tyagi – quietly one of the most impressive drivers on the circuit this season – provided the first breakthrough, pushing Abhishek into the spot to send him packing. Still, Head and Ishan Kishan, who came in at No.3, kept their foot firmly on the gas and SunRisers were bowled out for an impressive 71 for 1 in the over.
On most afternoons, this platform leads to only one result. But Varun and Narine didn’t read the script.
Head, already looking dangerous and racing to a fifty off just 22 balls, set his sights on something truly destructive. However, Varun has seen enough. The delivery bounced in a quicker, flatter fashion – Head finished on 61 in the ninth over and suddenly the SunRisers were reeling. Heinrich Klaasen got a lifeline when Rinku Singh took a catch at deep mid-wicket in the 11th over, but promptly wasted it and dug into the same over – Rovman Powell’s catch, it must be said, was nothing short of sensational.
There was something different about this KKR – the desire to convert half chances that was conspicuously absent in the first half of the season. It showed in every dive, every sprint, every sharp work in the field.
The SunRisers didn’t help themselves. The Orange Army, so poised to post totals north of 200, failed to recalibrate after the double blow of losing Head and Klaasen in quick succession.
With Nitish Kumar Reddy absent due to illness, there was simply no one in the middle order to offer Kishan the support he needed. Smaran Ravichandran, on debut, and Aniket Verma found Varun’s guile too hot to handle – the KKR spinner wisely gave the ball air, knowing full well that the generous boundaries at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium were his ally.
Narine then delivered the knockout blow in a devastating over, matching both the highly-rated Salil Arora and Ishan Kishan, extinguishing whatever was left of SRH’s hopes of a competitive total. SRH lost their last nine wickets for just 60 runs.
FINN ALLEN SPARK ABOVE
In response, Finn Allen, recalled to the side for the first time since a fight at the start of the season cost him his place, announced his comeback in the most emphatic way, smashing Pat Cummins for 29 from just 13 balls in the over. He didn’t go on to make it big, but his pyrotechnics at the top gave Rahane and Raghuvanshi the cushion they needed to bat at their own pace, freed from the tyranny of the asking rate.
The pair duly obliged, putting on 84 runs from 66 deliveries – measured, assured and not once having to shift gears beyond their comfort. Devoid of any real punch in the middle overs, the SunRisers bowling attack lacked the ability to pry the batsmen away from under the basket. With Rahane and Raghuvanshi falling in quick succession, Rinku Singh – a man in the form of his life against the backdrop of back-to-back fifties – ensured there was no last-minute drama as he saw KKR home with minimal fuss.
Buoyed by belief and chances to feel, KKR travel to Delhi for Friday’s crunch meeting. The SunRisers, meanwhile, need to dust themselves off quickly – the table-top Kings Punjab arrive in Hyderabad on Wednesday and momentum, as they surely know, is a fickle companion.
– The end
Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
03 May 2026 19:35 IST
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