Kolkata Knight Riders faced Sunrisers Hyderabad in their second match of IPL 2026 on Thursday, April 2, at Eden Gardens in Kolkata and suffered a humiliating defeat by 65 runs. In reply to SRH’s total of 226 runs, KKR could only manage to score 161 runs for the loss of all 10 wickets in 16 overs despite Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s second fifty in a row. The defeat against SRH on Thursday is a shocking pill to digest for Knight Riders, as for the first time since the 2012 edition of the Indian Premier League, Knight Riders have lost their first two matches of an IPL season.
Before going down by 65 runs against the Hyderabad-based franchise at Eden Gardens on April 2, KKR suffered a humiliating defeat by 6 wickets against Mumbai Indians in their first
match of the ongoing season. In that match, Kolkata Knight Riders posted a total of 220 for 4 in 20 overs but failed to defend it.
In the 2012 edition of IPL, KKR suffered a defeat by 8 wickets against Delhi Capitals in their first match, and in the second match, RR secured a 22-run win over them at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium on April 8.
KKR’s result in first two matches of every IPL season
| YEAR | 1st MATCH | 2nd MATCH |
| 2008 | Win (vs RCB) | Win (vs HDC) |
| 2009 | Defeat (vs HDC) | Win (vs PBKS) |
| 2010 | Win (vs HDC) | Win (vs RCB) |
| 2011 | Defeat (vs CSK) | Win (vs HDC) |
| 2012 | Defeat (vs DC) | Defeat (vs RR) |
| 2013 | Win (vs DC) | Defeat (vs RR) |
| 2014 | Win (vs MI) | Defeat (vs DC) |
| 2015 | Win (vs MI) | Defeat (vs RCB) |
| 2016 | Win (vs DC) | Defeat (vs MI) |
| 2017 | Win (vs GL) | Defeat (vs MI) |
| 2018 | Win (vs RCB) | Defeat (vs CSK) |
| 2019 | Win (vs SRH) | Win (vs PBKS) |
| 2020 | Defeat (vs MI) | Win (vs SRH) |
| 2021 | Win (vs SRH) | Defeat (vs MI) |
| 2022 | Win (vs CSK) | Defeat (vs RCB) |
| 2023 | Defeat (vs PBKS) | Win (vs RCB) |
| 2024 | Win (vs SRH) | Win (vs RCB) |
| 2025 | Win (vs RCB) | Win (vs RR) |
| 2026 | Defeat (vs MI) | Defeat (vs SRH) |
For KKR in their IPL 2026 match against SRH, Raghuvanshi played a knock of 52 runs from 29 balls; Rinku Singh made 35 runs from 25 balls, and Finn Allen hammered 28 runs from just 7 balls, but others failed to step up. Earlier in the first half of the match, Blessing Muzarabani picked up 4 wickets for 41 runs in four overs, and two SRH batters were sent back to the pavilion by Vaibhav Arora for 47 runs in four overs.
