By Prakash Nair 
Hyderabad, April 21: Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Delhi Capitals by 48 runs. SRH: 242/2 (20 overs) | DC: 194 (20 overs) Four wins on the bounce. That is where Sunrisers Hyderabad are right now in IPL 2026, and tonight’s performance at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium was the most complete of the lot.
Abhishek Sharma hit 135 not out. Eshan Malinga wrecked Delhi’s chase with two wickets in two balls at the most critical moment. And a Delhi Capitals side that had won in Bengaluru last Friday, chasing 176 from 18 for 3, never came close to pulling off anything similar tonight.
They needed 243. They got to 194. Forty-eight runs short. Game over well before the final over.
Delhi made a start, but never a Threat
Pathum Nissanka and KL Rahul walked out knowing what they had to do. Score at twelve and over from ball one, keep wickets in hand, and hope for a miracle in the last five overs. It was always going to be difficult. As it turned out, it was impossible.
Dilshan Madushanka opened the bowling on his IPL debut and got Nissanka in his very first meaningful spell. The Sri Lankan pacer swung it, Nissanka tried to create room, and sliced it straight to Liam Livingstone at mid-off. Eight off six. Early jolt for Delhi, debut wicket for Madushanka.
Nitish Rana came in and actually batted brilliantly. 57 off 30 balls. Three sixes, seven fours. He was hitting Shivang Kumar over the rope and farming the strike like a man who genuinely believed this chase was possible. Rahul at the other end was equally impressive, hitting Nitish Kumar Reddy for consecutive sixes despite wincing in pain between deliveries from a tennis elbow problem he has been carrying.
At 102 for 1 after nine overs, Delhi were not dead. Difficult, yes. Done, not quite.
Then came the over that changed everything.
Two Balls. Match Over.
Sakib Hussain tossed up a full toss on the pads. Rahul went for the big heave and completely miscued it. Abhishek Sharma at Deep Backward Square took it without breaking a sweat. Rahul stood there for a second, looking at the sky. Fifty-three runs off roughly 35 balls, excellent knock, finished in the worst possible way on a gift delivery.
Malinga came on next over.
First ball to Nitish Rana, angled it full across the left-hander. Rana went for the loft over long-on, nowhere near the middle of the bat, and Abhishek charged in from the boundary, slid forward, and took a sharp catch just above the turf. Rana is gone for 57. Big, fighting knock meant nothing in the end.
Next ball: David Miller. First ball. Cleaned up. Good-length delivery, held its line, caught the inside edge, brushed the back thigh, and hit the stumps. Golden duck. The Hyderabad crowd went completely berserk.
107 for 4. From 102 for 1. Three deliveries.
The match died in those three deliveries. Everything after that was just mathematics.
Stubbs Fought. Nobody Else Could.
Tristan Stubbs came in and at least made SRH work. He and Sameer Rizvi put on 59 in 32 balls, hitting boundaries, keeping some pressure on the fielders, refusing to go quietly.
But 76 off the last four overs with five wickets down and Malinga still with a couple of overs left was never happening. Malinga got Stubbs in the 16th over, a reverse scoop that flew straight to Sakib Hussain at third man. Third wicket of the night for Malinga. 27 off 16 for Stubbs, a good cameo in a losing cause.
Ashutosh Sharma came in as Impact Sub and slog-swept a few into the crowd, which at least kept things moving on the scoreboard. But Delhi finished at 194. Forty-eight short. Nowhere close when the match truly mattered.
Abhishek Sharma: Batter, Record-Breaker, Fielder
Let’s start with the obvious. 135 not out off 68 balls is one of the great IPL innings. Not the flashiest perhaps, not the fastest ever, but the control and the scale of it across 20 overs against a full-strength bowling attack made it something genuinely special.
He equalled Virat Kohli tonight with nine T20 hundreds across all formats. Most ever by an Indian batter. He also crossed 2,000 IPL runs for SRH, joining David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Kane Williamson in a club barely anyone gets into. All of that in one innings.
Then in the field during Delhi’s chase, he took two catches. The Rana catch, diving forward at long-on and scooping it just above the turf, was the better of the two. The Rahul catch at deep backward square was equally clean.
Man of the Match. Man of the night. Not even close.
Malinga: The Death Overs Are His
Eshan Malinga finished with three wickets, and the numbers tell part of the story. The rest is about what those three wickets were.
Nitish Rana. David Miller. Tristan Stubbs. The three batters Delhi were counting on to chase this down. All three back in the dugout inside four overs, all three dismissed by the same bowler.
His reverse swing when the ball got old was the difference maker in the back half of the innings. DC simply had no answer to it. Rahul’s elbow was limiting him. Miller got one ball. Stubbs tried the reverse scoop and found the fielder. When Malinga is on like he was tonight, chasing 243 becomes chasing the impossible.
Scorecard at a Glance
INNINGS 1 | SUNRISERS HYDERABAD
| Batter | Status | R | B | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abhishek Sharma | Not Out | 135 | 68 | 198.52 |
| Travis Head | c Sameer Rizvi b Axar Patel | 37 | 26 | 142.30 |
| Ishan Kishan (c) | Run Out (Nitish Rana) | 25 | 13 | 192.30 |
| Heinrich Klaasen | Not Out | 37 | 13 | 284.61 |
| Extras | ||||
| TOTAL | 242/2 in 20 Overs |
INNINGS 2 | DELHI CAPITALS
| Batter | Status | R | B | SR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pathum Nissanka | c Liam Livingstone b Madushanka | 8 | 6 | 133.33 |
| KL Rahul (wk) | c Abhishek Sharma b Sakib Hussain | — | — | — |
| Nitish Rana | c Abhishek Sharma b Malinga | 57 | 30 | 190.00 |
| David Miller | b Malinga | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| Tristan Stubbs | c Sakib Hussain b Malinga | 27 | 16 | 168.75 |
| Sameer Rizvi | — | 32+ | — | — |
| Extras | ||||
| TOTAL | 194 in 20 Overs |
KEY BOWLING | SRH
| Bowler | Wickets | Performance |
|---|---|---|
| Eshan Malinga | 3 | Rana, Miller, Stubbs |
| Sakib Hussain | 1 | KL Rahul |
| Dilshan Madushanka | 1 | Nissanka (IPL Debut) |
What This Win Means
SRH are on eight points now. Four wins from seven games. They move up the table and create real daylight between themselves and the sides just below them.
Pat Cummins returns for the next match on April 25 against the Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur. A fully fit Cummins added to this current batting lineup, and a bowling attack that has now won four matches in a row is a very different proposition from the side that lost three of its first four games.
Tonight in Hyderabad, the scoreboard read 242. Delhi needed 243. And once Malinga bowled those two deliveries in the tenth over of the chase, there was never any real question about how it was going to end.
SRH. Four in a row. Roll on April 25.
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- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
- Prakash Nair
