By Admin 
In the sixth match of IPL 2026, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 65 runs on Thursday at Eden Gardens. After registering the first win of the season, captain Ishan Kishan said that the opening pair of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head made the match very easy for SRH.
After the match, Ishan Kishan praised the important contribution of the entire team in this victory. He said, “I was happy with the efforts of everyone. I don’t think the pitch was very good. Head and Abhishek made the game easy for us. It was a complete team effort. Our plan was to take wickets. Harsh just bowled that ball and we were lucky to get that wicket. Harsh is doing well for his home team as well. I would like to talk about Shivang, he bowled exceptionally well. He bowled with great courage. Shivang bowled very well for us. “Did your job well.”
Despite the victory, Ishan Kishan said that the team will have to improve its fielding for the upcoming matches. He said, “Fielding is an area that we need to work on as a team. 10-20 runs make a big difference.” Nitish Kumar Reddy was chosen ‘Player of the Match’ for his strong innings of 39 runs with the bat and taking 2 wickets in bowling.
Batting first, Sunrisers Hyderabad scored 226 runs on the scoreboard after losing 8 wickets in 20 overs. For the team, Heinrich Klaasen scored 52, Abhishek Sharma scored 48 and Travis Head scored 46 runs, while Nitish Reddy contributed 39 runs in 24 balls. In response to this, the entire team of Kolkata Knight Riders collapsed after scoring 161 runs. Angkrish Raghuvanshi scored the maximum 52 runs for the team, while Rinku Singh scored 35 runs.
After the defeat, captain Ajinkya Rahane said that the match slipped out of the team’s hands due to lack of good partnerships. He said, “Yes, I thought we needed some big partnerships. The players who had settled in should have taken the innings forward. In bowling, I thought we made a very good comeback. In batting, when you are chasing a target, you need big partnerships, but we did not get that.”
Regarding the nature of the pitch in the second innings, Rahane said, “In the second innings, I felt that the ball was coming a little late. Compared to the first innings, the slower balls were gripping more. We thought the wicket would be better, but it became slower. However, I am not making any excuses. SRH used the slower balls well and the angles they used were really good. It is very important to win the home matches, so we have to sit back and praise our team. We have to think about the combination, do we need an extra batsman, it was just a bad day.”
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