Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 65 runs in their first meeting of IPL 2026. It wasn’t close an 84-run powerplay, a Heinrich Klaasen fifty, and a total of 226 that KKR never threatened.
A month later, KKR ended SRH’s five-match winning streak completely.
This Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders match scorecard covers the 45th Match of IPL 2026 in full. But to understand how dramatically the story changed, you need both chapters starting with SRH’s dominant opening statement.
Match in 30 Seconds
| Detail | Match information |
|---|---|
| Match | 45th Match, Indian Premier League 2026 |
| Venue | Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad |
| Date | 3 May 2026 |
| Toss | Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and elected to bat |
| Sunrisers Hyderabad score | 165 all out in 19 overs |
| Kolkata Knight Riders score | 169/3 in 18.2 overs |
| Result | Kolkata Knight Riders won by 7 wickets |
| Player of the Match | Varun Chakaravarthy — 3/36 |
| Season context | KKR reversed a 65-run defeat suffered against SRH a month earlier |
The one-line story: SRH’s dominant 65-run win in their first meeting made KKR look completely outclassed, but a month later, KKR’s spin duo ended SRH’s five-match winning streak in the return fixture.
The Season’s First Blow: The 6th Match
An 84-run powerplay and Klaasen’s fifty power SRH to 226
At Eden Gardens on 2 April, Sunrisers Hyderabad chose to bat and never looked back. Travis Head (46 off 21) and Abhishek Sharma (48 off 21) put on 82 runs in just 34 balls, part of an 84-run powerplay that was SRH’s best of the season to that point. Heinrich Klaasen then anchored the middle overs with a fluent 52 off 35 his second consecutive fifty while Nitish Kumar Reddy added a valuable 39, pushing SRH to an imposing 226/8.
What most people miss: a total this dominant, built entirely on one side’s aggression from ball one, can create a lasting impression of superiority that doesn’t necessarily reflect the two teams’ genuine gap in quality. It reflects one team executing a specific plan attack the powerplay relentlessly better than the other on one given night.
KKR’s chase collapses to 161
Chasing 227, KKR never found rhythm. Finn Allen’s quickfire 28 and Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 52 off 29 gave brief hope, but Jaydev Unadkat (3 wickets) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (2 wickets) tore through the middle and lower order, bowling KKR out for 161 in just 16 overs. Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 65 runs their first victory of IPL 2026.
Bold opinion: a 65-run margin this early in the season should never be read as a settled form line between two teams. It was, at the time, simply proof that SRH’s top-order aggression could overwhelm a KKR side still finding its rhythm nothing more permanent than that single night’s execution gap.
Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders Match Scorecard: The 45th Match
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s innings: 165 all out in 19 overs
| Batter | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | Strike rate | Dismissal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abhishek Sharma | 15 | 10 | 1 | 1 | 150.00 | c Green b Tyagi |
| Travis Head | 61 | 28 | 9 | 3 | 217.86 | c Green b Chakravarthy |
| Ishan Kishan (wk) | 42 | 29 | 4 | 2 | 144.83 | c Roy b Narine |
| Heinrich Klaasen | 11 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 137.50 | c Powell b Green |
| Pat Cummins (c) | 10 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 125.00 | c & b Roy |
| Extras | 5 | — | — | — | — | 1 b, 4 w |
| Total | 165 | 19 overs |
Fall of wickets: 44/1 (Abhishek Sharma, 3.4), 105/2 (Travis Head, 8.6), 117/3 (Heinrich Klaasen, 10.4), 148/7 (Ishan Kishan, 15.6), 156/8 (Pat Cummins, 16.6), 165/10 (Harshal Patel, 18.6).
KKR bowling figures
| Bowler | Overs | Runs | Wickets | Economy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunil Narine | 4 | 31 | 2 | 7.75 |
| Kartik Tyagi | 4 | 30 | 2 | 7.50 |
| Cameron Green | 3 | 34 | 1 | 11.33 |
| Varun Chakaravarthy | 4 | 36 | 3 | 9.00 |
| Anukul Roy | 1 | 8 | 1 | 8.00 |
Kolkata Knight Riders’ innings: 169/3 in 18.2 overs
| Batter | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | Strike rate | Dismissal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ajinkya Rahane (c) | 43 | 36 | 4 | 1 | 119.44 | c Smaran b Sakib Hussain |
| Finn Allen | 29 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 223.08 | c Klaasen b Cummins |
| Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk) | 59 | 47 | 5 | 2 | 125.53 | c Malinga b Kumar |
| Rinku Singh | 22 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 200.00 | not out |
| Cameron Green | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 | not out |
| Extras | 13 | — | — | — | — | 1 lb, 12 w |
| Total | 169/3 | 18.2 overs |
Fall of wickets: 49/1 (Finn Allen, 3.6), 133/2 (Ajinkya Rahane, 14.6), 151/3 (Angkrish Raghuvanshi, 16.4).
SRH bowling figures
| Bowler | Overs | Runs | Wickets | Economy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abhishek Sharma | 2 | 14 | 0 | 7.00 |
| Pat Cummins | 4 | 47 | 1 | 11.75 |
| Sakib Hussain | 3 | 17 | 1 | 5.66 |
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Highlights and Key Moments
1. Head and Kishan build a platform at 105/1
Travis Head’s 61 off 28 and Ishan Kishan’s 42 off 29 gave SRH exactly the start they wanted, reaching 105/1 after nine overs the kind of platform that on this ground usually projects toward 220 or more.
Counterintuitive point: a fast start with only one wicket down doesn’t guarantee anything on its own. It’s an opportunity that still needs converting over by over and SRH’s next ten overs proved exactly why that conversion is never automatic.
2. The spin twins trigger a nine-wickets-for-60 collapse
From 105/1, SRH lost their next nine wickets for just 60 runs. Varun Chakaravarthy took 3/36, dismissing Head among others. Sunil Narine took 2/31, removing Kishan. Together their combined figures of 5/67 across eight overs dismantled SRH’s middle and lower order.
This is where things go wrong for a team that started so well: once the top-order platform collapses this completely, there’s no recovering SRH’s final total of 165 undersold how genuinely dominant their position had looked just ten overs earlier.
3. Rahane and Raghuvanshi’s 84-run stand seals it
Ajinkya Rahane’s 43 and Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 59 built an 84-run stand for the second wicket that effectively decided the chase, with Rinku Singh finishing things off in style.
Bold opinion: this specific partnership is the mirror image of the collapse that beat KKR a month earlier two batters building a platform methodically, rather than relying on one destructive burst, and refusing to let the innings stall once wickets started falling around them.
Player Performance Breakdown
Heinrich Klaasen’s form arc across both matches
Klaasen’s 52 in the 6th Match was his second consecutive fifty and a genuine match-winning contribution. In the 45th Match, he managed just 11 off 8 before falling to Cameron Green.
Original observation: tracking one player’s form across both meetings reveals something raw win-loss records miss Klaasen’s individual form actually declined between the two matches, even though the underlying team momentum swung entirely in the opposite direction. Team results and individual form don’t always move in lockstep.
Varun Chakaravarthy: Player of the Match and a season turnaround
Chakaravarthy’s 3/36 came after a difficult start to his own season. His captain Ajinkya Rahane praised the turnaround directly, and this match moving him up the all-time list for POTM awards by specialist wrist-spinners was the direct payoff of persisting with a struggling specialist.
Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi: the partnership that won it
Their 84-run stand for the second wicket was built on rotation and calculated aggression rather than pure power, precisely the platform-building KKR had lacked in their first meeting with SRH.
Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma: SRH’s explosive top order, then and now
In the 6th Match, Head (46) and Abhishek (48) combined for an 82-run opening stand in just 34 balls. In the 45th Match, Head’s 61 was even better individually, but Abhishek fell for just 15 showing SRH’s top order can still fire even when the overall team result goes the other way.
Common mistake in analysis: assuming a losing team’s individual performances must all be poor. Head’s 61 off 28 in the 45th Match was arguably a better individual innings than his 46 in the win a month earlier team result and individual quality are separate questions.
Analysis: How KKR Reversed a 65-Run Demolition
What changed between the two matches
What people think: a 65-run beating usually reflects a genuine, lasting gap in quality between two teams.
Reality: the two matches were decided by completely different factors. The first was about which top order could exploit the powerplay better. The second was about which side’s spin bowlers could control the middle overs. SRH won the first battle emphatically; KKR won the second just as emphatically.
KKR’s spin-first blueprint
Chakaravarthy and Narine’s combined 5/67 in the second meeting reflects a deliberate middle-overs plan that simply wasn’t tested to the same degree in the first match, where SRH’s aggression came almost entirely inside the powerplay.
What this means for both teams’ seasons
KKR’s win ended SRH’s five-match winning streak and extended KKR’s own head-to-head dominance over SRH a historic 21 wins in 32 matches, the joint second-most wins for any team against a single opponent in IPL history.
Practical takeaway for reading a two-match season series: a dominant first meeting tells you almost nothing about a rematch once the specific tactical battleground shifts. Judge each match on its own terms, not as a continuation of the last one.
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Records, Season Context and Format Guardrail
| Record | Detail |
|---|---|
| SRH’s 6th Match powerplay | 84 runs, their best of the season at that point |
| KKR’s all-time wins vs SRH | 21 wins in 32 matches — joint second-most for any team vs a single opponent |
| SRH’s winning streak ended | 5 matches, snapped in the 45th Match |
| Varun Chakaravarthy’s POTM tally | Moved into the top 10 all-time among specialist wrist-spinners |
Format guardrail
| Fixture | Correct context |
|---|---|
| SRH vs KKR, 45th Match, IPL 2026 (this article) | The streak-ending match — this article’s core scorecard |
| KKR vs SRH, 6th Match, IPL 2026 (this article) | The season opener between these teams — SRH’s dominant win |
| KKR vs SRH, 2023 (Gujarat Titans archive) | A completely different, unrelated season |
Frequently Asked Question (FAQs)
Q1. Who won the Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders match in IPL 2026
Ans. Kolkata Knight Riders won the 45th Match by 7 wickets. SRH scored 165 all out, and KKR chased it down at 169/3. This reversed SRH’s 65-run win in their first meeting a month earlier.
Q2. What was the Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders match scorecard
Ans. In the 45th Match, SRH scored 165 all out, led by Travis Head’s 61. KKR replied with 169/3, with Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s 59 and Ajinkya Rahane’s 43 the top scores, winning by 7 wickets.
Q3. Did KKR avenge their earlier loss to SRH?
Ans. Yes. SRH beat KKR by 65 runs in the 6th Match on 2 April, but KKR reversed the result completely in the 45th Match on 3 May, winning by 7 wickets and ending SRH’s five-match winning streak.
Q4. Who was Player of the Match in each meeting?
Ans. Details on the 6th Match’s official award were not confirmed in available sources, though Heinrich Klaasen’s fifty was central to SRH’s win. Varun Chakaravarthy was Player of the Match in the 45th Match for his figures of 3/36.
Q5. How did SRH collapse in the 45th Match after reaching 105/1?
Ans. SRH lost their last nine wickets for just 60 runs after reaching 105/1 in nine overs, as Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine combined for 5 wickets in the middle overs.