Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, Match No. 6 between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Eden Gardens, Kolkata has ended as SRH defeated KKR by 65 runs. Both the teams entered this match after being completely defeated in their first match. KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and elected to field first as the Knights fielded an unchanged team.
SRH made one change by including Shivang Kumar in the team. Orange Army openers, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, went on the offensive against the KKR bowlers and thrashed them in every part of the ground. Their score in the first six overs was 84/1. Head scored 46 runs in 21 balls. The latter dismissed Varun Chakraborty for 25 inside the power play.
Abhishek Sharma showed amazing performance with the bat
Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma returned to the pavilion with Blessing Muzarabani taking two wickets in the same over, as Varun Chakravarthy took a controversial catch to dismiss the latter. With these two wickets, KKR came back into the game. From 110/1, they were 118/4 as Ajinkya Rahane’s side scored some runs.
In the end, Heinrich Klaasen scored 52 off 35 balls and Nitish Kumar Reddy also scored 39 off 24 balls, helping the Orange Army post 226/8 in their 20 overs. KKR will be happy, as at one time 250 runs seemed possible by SRH.
KKR failed to register its first win
The Knights got off to a great start while chasing the target and Finn Allen scored 25 runs in the first over of David Payne. However, Allen was out at the score of 28 off 7 balls as Harsh Dubey took a sharp catch on the next ball after hitting a four.
After this, there was a flurry of wickets for the Knights, in which Cameron Green and Angkrish Raghuvanshi were run out. At the end of 14 overs their score was 151/6 with Sunil Narine and Ramandeep Singh at the crease. He could not even play the full 20 overs and was out for 162 runs.
I felt we needed some big partnerships- Ajinkya Rahane
After the defeat, Ajinkya Rahane said, “Yes, I felt we needed some big partnerships. The guys who were ready needed to take it deep. With the ball I thought we came back really well. In batting, when you are chasing, you need that partnership, but we didn’t get that.” [Grass on the pitch] In the second innings I felt the ball was stopping a bit.”
“The slower balls were holding a lot more than in the first innings. We thought the wicket would be better but it got slower. But not making excuses. SRH made good use of the slower balls and the angles they used were really good.”
Rahane further said, “It is really important to win home matches so we have to go back to the drawing room and think about our combinations, if we need an extra batsman. But we don’t need to think too much. Just a bad day.”
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