Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 6th Match, Indian Premier League 2026 - Commentary

The team batting first has finally won a game in this IPL. A good all-round performance from SRH away from home. Not the ideal start with the ball but they were tactically good which helped them register a big win. Harsh Dubey was used in the powerplay to remove the dangerous Allen and then the pacers executed their plans really well. Another forgettable outing for KKR. Varun Chakaravarthy's form is a big concern for them. Rahane mentioned he'll think about their combination. That's it for today. Tune in tomorrow for the battle between the Kings - CSK vs PBKS - in Chennai. Until then, goodbye and good night.

Nitish Kumar Reddy | Player of the Match: I mean, it's really good. It's just the match-winning performance I've been waiting for a long time. Thankfully, I have delivered at the right time. Even for my bowling, I got some boundaries on my own runs as well. (What you have been through in the last few months and what have you worked on?) It's just I'm trying to be positive because there have been very... too many negative thoughts in my mind because the last season was not gone in my way and too many injuries. I didn't bowl last season and I know I wanted to work on my bowling a bit and I got some break. But just before coming to IPL season, I really worked hard on my bowling and it's really good and I worked really, really hard and it's shown on the ground and really, really happy. (How good is your body feeling?) I'm feeling very good now. I mean, thanks to the trainers and the physios who have been taking care of me. I mean, my body is feeling fit now.

Ishan Kishan | SRH captain: (Happy with the way you played?) Yeah, not at the way I played, but the way the rest of the team. ("When I say you, it’s always the team," corrects Murali Karthik) It’s always the team, yeah. So really happy the way they were committed on the ground and, you know, everyone was putting their energy, and that was something I asked for before the game. And I was just happy to see all of them putting their effort. (Was he happy with the score?) No, I don’t think the pitch was that good, to be very honest. I think Travis Head and Abhishek played a beautiful knock out there and, you know, getting those all 80 runs in the powerplay made the game easy for us because I think every batter got that extra time to take singles and understand how the pitch is playing. So, to be very honest, I give credit to both the batters and Klassy taking it to the end, Nitish playing a lovely knock. So, it was overall a team effort, I feel. (With the kind of start Finn Allen provided, did it make you think after the first over?) No, I think our plan was to take - we’ll look for wickets, you know, and we all know when Finn goes, you know, it’s hard to stop him, but at the same time, we were just looking for wickets. And Harsh just bowled that ball and, you know, we were lucky enough to get his wicket. But yeah, I’m really happy with the bowlers, the way they performed and the way they were executing their plans. (How good were the two spinners?) Harsh has been doing well for his domestic team as well. Now, he is keeping his nerves down, like you said. He’s been calm in tough situations as well. But I would love to talk about Shivang today because, you know, coming here, playing against KKR, not so big ground, good wicket in the second innings and, you know, he bowled exceptionally well, I feel. So, that is something, you know, his hard work paid off. He was working a lot. He was in touch with all the coaches. He was trying to understand how this game works here. And, you know, you can see how he was bowling with a big heart against Rinku, bowling those flighted balls. So, that is something you always want to see from a young bowler who comes in the team, and he did the job for us. (What areas to improve?) I think we are getting to know about the areas in each and every game. So, yeah, fielding is something we need to work on as a team. We cannot be giving 20 odd runs in each game. So, yeah, we will have to work there because, you know, in IPL, 20 or 10 runs, it makes a huge difference in a T20 game. So, yeah, we’ll work on it as a team.

Jaydev Unadkat | Purple Cap holder : Thank you, everybody. It’s very early in the season, but yeah, happy to get this whenever I can. (How does it feel to play in your late 30's) Yeah, I feel it’s, like you said, you know, experience counts. It’s about not worrying what people on the outside talk. Whatever works on the day works. Cutters were working today, so we stuck to that. We bowled into the pitch, got some good wickets in between, got a lucky breakthrough and got that run out. So, yeah, pretty happy with the bowling performance. We didn’t bowl well in the first game. I think we didn’t execute our plans, but today was a good performance overall. I think while our batting innings was going on, and obviously the feedback from our batters was that the wicket is double-paced, the ball was sticking on the pitch. So, yeah, always working together and the communication worked. I always try and keep two options open on top of the mark and just see what the batter is trying to do, if he’s trying to move around or if he’s just trying to clear his leg. And most of the times it’s deciding on top of the mark. Sometimes you’re going to mix at the end. Changing the angles, trying to keep the batsman guessing all the time. It’s obviously the pitches and the grounds make you feel like you get hit on good balls as well. So, just keep doing different stuff and make the batsman guessing all the time. I think that’s what worked for me today.

Ajinkya Rahane | KKR captain: Yeah, I thought, no, we did a couple of big partnerships. Guys who were set, they needed to take it deep in the end with the ball [bat]. I thought we came back really well for 7-8 overs. Within the [10] overs, I thought they were 130, 140-odd. But with the ball, I thought we came back really well. In batting, when you're chasing the target, you know you need that partnership. We couldn't get that. (Did the extra grass make the pitch play differently?) I thought the second innings, I felt the ball was slightly stopping. The slower balls were gripping a lot more than the first innings. And that's what we, I don't know, we thought the wicket will get better but the ball was little stopping. But again, see, no excuses. We got the good start. I thought first six overs we were 78. We lost that one extra wicket. Green is run out. But apart from that, we were going really well. As I said, middle overs were the crucial time for us. We needed that partnership from the set batters. That just didn't happen. I thought SRH bowlers executed the slower balls and the angles what they used was really good. (Winning home games are important. What next will they have to do?) Yes, absolutely. I mean, winning a game, home game is really important. So, we'll have to just go back in the drawing room, just think about our combination. If bowling, if we can get extra batter in our lineup, we'll have to think about that. But again, we got 3-4 days. We don't want to think too much. I think guys are doing really well. Just one off day with the bat. Last game we did really well. Just needed those small partnerships. I think if the batters can have that positive mindset and this extra awareness while batting, I think we'll be fine.

17:37 GMT, 23:07 IST: A big win for Sunrisers Hyderabad to register their first win this season. Inserted to bat, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head set the tone upfront as SRH scored 84 runs in the powerplay (highest this season). They stuttered a bit but Klaasen's fifty and Nitish's handy 39 powered them to 226. In reply, KKR got off to a blazing start. Finn Allen came out all guns blazing by attacking Payne in the first over (4 4 6 6 4) at the venue where he smashed a 33-ball century in the T20 World Cup semi-final. His innings was cut short by Harsh Dubey who was brave enough to toss the ball up. Angkrish Raghuvanshi took little time to get going, smashed two sixes off Abhishek and KKR's 50 came up in 20 balls. While Raghuvanshi scored at a quick pace, KKR lost two more wickets in the powerplay (Rahane falling to Unadkat and Green getting run-out). Rinku Singh joined Raghuvanshi and the game was on a knife-edge when they were batting together. The latter became the second KKR batter to get run-out and then NKR removed two left-handers (Anukul and Rinku) from round the wicket. Sunil Narine struck a couple of sixes but his innings came to an end quickly. KKR, who were 120/3 in the 11th over, lost their last 7 wickets for 41 runs. SRH's pacers varied the pace smartly. While Unadkat scalped three wickets, Nitish and Malinga picked two apiece.

Jaydev Unadkat to Varun Chakaravarthy, THATS OUT!! Bowled!!

Jaydev Unadkat to Kartik Tyagi, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

Lowest average vs SRH in IPL
10.9 - Sunil Narine*
16.8 - Hardik Pandya
20.9 - Axar Patel
22.3 - Dinesh Karthik
22.8 - Glenn Maxwell
*Min 15 innings