KKR vs SRH IPL 2026: Klaasen half-century, Travis-Abhishek cameos power SRH to victory
A fine half-century from Heinrich Klaasen and a dominant opening partnership between Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, Sunrisers Hyderabad defeat Kolkata Knight Riders by 65 runs at Eden Gardens on Thursday night.
Sunrisers’s victory today marks the first time that a team that has lost the toss, batted first and won a match in this year’s IPL.
Put into bat first by KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane, SRH openers started the innings in typical ‘Travishek’ fashion, sending the ball to all parts of the ground, and racing to 84 runs by the end of the 6th over.
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Varun Chakaravarthy had another disappointing evening with the ball, conceding 31 runs from his two overs. After Kartik Tyagi removed Head and Blessing Muzarabani removed Abhishek and SRH captain in quick succession, Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy ensured the scoring rate remained high.
While Nitish departed in the 18th over after scoring 39 runs, Klaasen managed to stay till the end to provide the final flourish to help SRH end up with 226 runs from its 20 overs, a target that ultimately proved to be beyond KKR’S reach.
KKR started its chase well as Finn Allen smashed David Payne in the very first over for 25 runs, but perished soon after to Harsh Dubey in the second over. KKR was able to maintain to a high scoring rate until the end of the Powerplay, finishing with 74 runs but by then had already lost three wickets.
SRH’s bowlers, led by Jaydev Unadkat and Eshan Malinga, took wickets on regular intervals as KKR were bowled out for 161 runs in 16 overs. Unadkat took the last wicket for SRH, getting Varun Chakaravarthy clean bowled to close out a complete performance for the visitor.
KKR crashed to its second lose in a row, and its only positives today were Blessing Muzarabani’s spell of 4 for 41 and Angriksh Raghuvanshi’s second half-century on the trot.
Published on Apr 02, 2026
