Sunrisers Hyderabad crushed defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 55 runs in their 14th and final league match of IPL 2026 on Friday (May 22), but it was not enough for Pat Cummins’ men to pip them in the net run rate (NRR) and book a place in the top two of the IPL 2026 points table.
SRH, which posted a total of 255 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 20 overs after Cummins opted to bat first, needed to secure a win by at least 90 runs at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad to go past RCB in the NRR, but they failed to achieve the objective.
As a result, SRH finished third in the IPL 2026 points table despite having the same number of 18 points as RCB and the Gujarat Titans.
A third-place finish in the IPL 2026 points table
means that the Orange Army will now feature in the Eliminator match on Wednesday (May 27) in New Chandigarh, whereas the Qualifier 1 will be played between RCB and GT at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium in Dharamsala on Tuesday (May 26).
The winner of Qualifier 1 will qualify directly for the final, whereas the losing team will face the winner of the eliminator match in Qualifier 2 on Friday (May 29) in New Chandigarh.
IPL 2026 points table after SRH vs RCB match on May 22
| POSITION | TEAM | MATCHES | WINS | DEFEATS | NO RESULT | POINTS | NRR |
| 1. | Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Q) | 14 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 18 | 0.783 |
| 2. | Gujarat Titans (Q) | 14 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 18 | 0.695 |
| 3. | Sunrisers Hyderabad (Q) | 14 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 18 | 0.524 |
| 4. | Rajasthan Royals | 13 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 14 | 0.083 |
| 5. | Punjab Kings | 13 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 13 | 0.227 |
| 6. | Kolkata Knight Riders | 13 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 13 | 0.011 |
| 7. | Chennai Super Kings (E) | 14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 12 | -0.345 |
| 8. | Delhi Capitals | 13 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 12 | -0.871 |
| 9. | Mumbai Indians (E) | 13 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 0.510 |
| 10. | Lucknow Super Giants (E) | 13 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 8 | -0.702 |
Orange Cap
Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, and Abhishek Sharma scored half-centuries for SRH in their last league match of IPL 2026 on Friday, and their super shows with the bat helped them take massive gains in the Orange Cap leaderboard. Klaasen, who hammered 51 runs from just 24 balls, is now third in the Orange Cap list with a total of 606 runs in 14 matches. On the other hand, Ishan and Abhishek are 5th and 6th, respectively.
Ishan, who top-scored for SRH (79 runs from 46 balls) against RCB on Friday, overall has scored 569 runs in IPL 2026. Whereas Abhishek, who made 56 runs from 22 balls in Hyderabad, has amassed a total of 563 runs in this year’s IPL.
Virat Kohli, who is RCB’s highest run scorer in IPL 2026, was also in action on Friday, but after managing to score only 15 runs from 11 balls in the 256-run chase, he remained 8th on the list of batters with the most runs in this year’s IPL.
GT openers Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill take the top two positions in the Orange Cap list. While Sudharsan is the current holder of the Orange Cap with 638 runs, Gill has amassed a total of 616 runs in 13 matches.
Orange Cap in IPL 2026 | Top Run-scorers
| POSITION | PLAYER | TEAM | MATCHES | RUNS | STRIKE RATE |
| 1. | Sai Sudharsan | Gujarat Titans | 14 | 638 | 157.92 |
| 2. | Shubman Gill | Gujarat Titans | 13 | 616 | 161.67 |
| 3. | Heinrich Klaasen | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 14 | 606 | 159.47 |
| 4. | Vaibhav Sooryavanshi | Rajasthan Royals | 13 | 579 | 236.32 |
| 5. | Ishan Kishan | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 14 | 569 | 178.36 |
| 6. | Abhishek Sharma | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 14 | 563 | 206.22 |
| 7. | Mitchell Marsh | Lucknow Super Giants | 13 | 563 | 163.18 |
| 8. | Virat Kohli | Royal Challengers Bengaluru | 14 | 556 | 164.98 |
| 9. | KL Rahul | Delhi Capitals | 13 | 533 | 171.93 |
| 10. | Sanju Samson | Chennai Super Kings | 14 | 477 | 165.62 |
Purple Cap
RCB’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar is leading the Purple Cap race in IPL 2026. The 35-year-old has 24 wickets to his name in 14 matches of this year’s IPL. The 35-year-old fast bowler from Meerut had a chance to take lead over Kagiso Rabada, who has also picked up 24 wickets in IPL 2026, on Friday but he remained wicketless in his quota of four overs and conceded 51 runs.
For Sunrisers Hyderabad, Sri Lankan fast bowler Eshan Malinga picked up two wickets and uncapped Indian pacer Sakib Hussain dismissed one RCB batter. Eshan, with 19 wickets to his name in IPL 2026, is now 5th in the Purple Cap list and Sakib takes the 10th place with 15 wickets.
Purple Cap in IPL 2026 | Top Wicket-takers
| POSITION | PLAYER | TEAM | MATCHES | WICKETS | ECONOMY RATE |
| 1. | Bhuvneshwar Kumar | Royal Challengers Bengaluru | 14 | 24 | 8.07 |
| 2. | Kagiso Rabada | Gujarat Titans | 14 | 24 | 9.18 |
| 3. | Anshul Kamboj | Chennai Super Kings | 14 | 21 | 10.52 |
| 4. | Rashid Khan | Gujarat Titans | 14 | 19 | 8.71 |
| 5. | Eshan Malinga | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 14 | 19 | 9.27 |
| 6. | Jofra Archer | Rajasthan Royals | 13 | 18 | 9.14 |
| 7. | Kartik Tyagi | Kolkata Knight Riders | 13 | 18 | 9.42 |
| 8. | Mohammed Siraj | Gujarat Titans | 14 | 17 | 8.58 |
| 9. | Prince Yadav | Lucknow Super Giants | 13 | 16 | 8.71 |
| 10. | Sakib Hussain | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 10 | 15 | 8.91 |
On Saturday (May 23), Punjab Kings will face Lucknow Super Giants in their last league match of this year’s IPL at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. A win over LSG will keep PBKS alive in the IPL 2026 playoffs race, whereas a defeat will knock Shreyas Iyer’s men out.
