Kolkata Knight Riders recorded their third win of the season on the bounce with their 7-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday in the IPL 2026 clash between the two sides.
KKR bundled SRH out for 165 runs despite Travis Head’s quick half-century as Varun Chakravarthy starred with a three-fer, and Sunil Narine and Karthik Tyagi registered a couple of wickets. A half-century from Angkrish Raghuvanshi helped KKR chase down the target with 10 balls to spare.
“When I bat with Ajinkya bhaiya, the communication is really good. He just tells me to watch the ball and react. Calms me down,” said Raghuvanshi about Rahane’s influence.
“When I was a kid I used to dream of this. Just me living my dream. So many
stars to learn from. Wouldn’t change it for anything,” he said.
SRH won the toss, and skipper Pat Cummins chose to bat first. Openers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head gave the hosts a flying start with a 44-run partnership before Abhishek fell to Kartik Tyagi for 15 off 10 balls.
Ishan Kishan walked in to join Head, who raced to a half-century in just 22 deliveries. Head’s blistering knock ended when Varun Chakravarthy struck, with Cameron Green safely pouching the catch offered by the Australian.
Heinrich Klaasen’s stay was cut short by a moment of brilliance from Rovman Powell, who pulled off a spectacular one-handed catch in the deep to dismiss the South African for 11 in Green’s over.
SRH then began to lose wickets in a cluster. Smaran Ravichandran was removed by Chakravarthy for a run-a-ball 4, with Ajinkya Rahane showing safe hands to complete the catch.
Chakravarthy then secured his third wicket as Rahane followed up with an even better catch to send Aniket Verma back for 6. KKR stalwart Sunil Narine claimed his 200th tournament wicket by bowling Salil Arora for just 2 off 6 deliveries.
The West Indies great struck again to dismiss Kishan for 42 off 29, with Anukul Roy taking the catch. Roy then accounted for Pat Cummins with a caught-and-bowled for 10, deepening SRH’s troubles.
Vaibhav Arora removed Shivang Kumar for just 1, with Angkrish Raghuvanshi taking the catch behind the stumps. KKR eventually bowled SRH out for 165, as Tyagi dismissed Harshal Patel for 6.
Rahane opened the innings with Finn Allen, who was removed for 29 by Cummins, who leaked 27 runs off his over to the Kiwi before scalping him. Rahane and Raghuvanshi steadied the chase with a 84-run stand before the skipper was dismissed by Sakib Hussain for 43 runs.
Raghuvanshi was removed for 59 runs by Shivang Kumar, before Rinku Singh and Green remained unbeaten on 22 and 3 runs respectively to close out the game for KKR.
