Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) suffered a six-wicket defeat against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in a high-scoring IPL 2026 match at Mullanpur on Saturday (April 11).
Invited to bat first, SRH racked up a formidable 219/6 on the board, thanks to Abhishek Sharma’s 28-ball 74. Abhishek, who hammered five fours and eight sixes, shared a 120-run stand with opening partner Travis Head (38 off 23).
In reply, the opening duo of Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh laid the foundation of a successful chase with a 99-run partnership in just 6.2 overs. After their dismissals, Shreyas Iyer produced a captain’s knock of 69* in just 33 balls to take PBKS over the line with seven deliveries to spare.
After the loss, SRH’s interim skipper Ishan Kishan lamented his side's poor finishing with the bat after the openers amassed 105 runs in the powerplay.
"I think in the middle, we could have ended up with a total of 250 at least the way we got started. But, these things happen. We did not end up getting those runs,” Kishan said at the post-match presentation.
“But at the same time, they did actually bat well in the beginning and they also had the powerplay on their side. But at the same time, I feel we were not so good with the execution. Like I said earlier, in T20 cricket, the most important thing is execution of your good balls. So we were not that great today,” he added.
Kishan believed that 219 was a "good total" to defend, especially having six or seven bowling options available.
“(What was par on that?) Par, to be very honest, I thought 219 was a good total anyway because we started in a very good manner, we thought we could end up getting 240. But I think 219 was a very good total, especially having six or seven bowlers in your side who can bowl.”
He blamed the loss on a failure to execute plans and a lack of understanding regarding how the opposition batters were playing, rather than the total being too low.
“We need to just, you know, understand the batters, how they're going to bat, what they're going to do. But I think we were lacking at that point of time. And that showed in their batting that it was pretty easier for them to score runs in the end,” Kishan stated.
“(Discussions as skipper with your bowlers) I think in today's cricket, you don't have to plan much. You just do it before the game. You know which batter is used to hitting where. You just know which areas if one side was longer, we were trying to use that boundary. But like I said earlier, when you don't execute balls, you have nothing and you just end up giving those 10-20 runs in every over. So it also depends on how they bat and they were pretty good tonight,” he further remarked.
When asked if 200-plus totals are no longer safe, Kishan suggested that they are still defensible with proper execution.
“(200 isn't a safe number anymore?) No, to be very honest, we don't think so much. Like I said, it's very simple cricket. You know, you go into bat, you score runs. Your bowlers have a total. You try to defend it. But at the same time, if you don't bowl in the right areas, if you're not planning properly, then you can't stop runs in the middle. So, yeah, it all depends on your planning and execution, to be very honest,” he concluded.
