How Sunrisers Hyderabad Made It To IPL 2026 Playoffs
Hyderabad : A determined Sunrisers Hyderabad eased past Chennai Super Kings by five wickets to seal their place in the IPL 2026 playoffs in Chennai on Monday.
However, it was far from a straightforward victory as the scoreboard suggested. SRH's ultra-aggressive batting line-up was forced to grind it out and adapt on a tricky pitch at the M A Chidambaram stadium as they chased down 181 in 19 overs.
After collapsing for a shocking 86 in their previous game against Gujarat Titans, SRH's decision to ditch their all-out attacking approach with the bat and respect the conditions paid dividends.
This marks the only second time in the last six seasons that SRH have reached the playoffs despite boasting of one of the most explosive batting line-ups in the IPL.
It was 10 years ago that Sunrisers Hyderabad won their maiden IPL title in 2016 before they enjoyed a consistent run in the league -- finishing as runners up in 2018, and qualifying for the playoffs for five successive seasons from 2016 to 2020.
After losing the IPL 2024 final, an inconsistent SRH flopped last season as they missed out on the playoffs after finishing sixth in the league stage.
This season too they started on a shaky note. With Captain Pat Cummins missing the first few weeks because of injury, SRH managed just one win from their first four games.
Then came the turnaround as they bounced back with five victories in a row to get their campaign back on track.
The SRH bowlers once again punched above their weight against CSK. Cummins led the way with excellent figures of 3/28 in four overs including 15 dot balls. He ran through the CSK batting line-up with timely strikes, picking up three crucial wickets including Sanju Samson (27), Ruturaj Gaikwad (15) and Kartik Sharma (32).
Gaikwad's approach was puzzling as he scored a painstaking 15 from 21 balls, not managing to hit a single boundary despite being in the middle for nearly 12 overs. His strike rate of 71.42 ranks as the second slowest by any batter facing 20 balls or more in IPL 2026.
Gaikwad has not found his rhythm with the bat, scoring 321 runs in 13 games at a strike rate of 120.67 -- the lowest among the specialist batters in the CSK line-up.
He could take a lot of learning from someone like Ishan Kishan, who despite struggling early on never allowed his strike rate to drop below 100. Kishan benefitted a lot from Heinrich Klaasen taking down the CSK spinners in the middle overs which helped keep the asking rate in check.
Kishan, on 26 from 32 balls, got a crucial lifeline when Noor Ahmad missed a direct hit from the covers. That proved to be the turning point, as Kishan pulled the next ball from Anshul Kamboj for a six, before racing to his fifty from 35 balls.
With 18 needed from the last three overs, CSK were still in the game when Nitish Kumar Reddy fell to Mukesh Choudhary but Kishan ensured he finished off the game. He trudged off disappointedly after giving away his wicket a few runs from the end. Attempting the inside out lofted shot off Kamboj, he holed out to log-off to be dismissed for a match-winning 70 from 47 balls.
Kishan would later reveal after the match how his game plan was to bat till the end.
'I was just trying to keep it simple, try and bat as many overs as I can because being a left-hander, being in the middle, it's difficult for the bowlers to keep the areas right every time. So I was just keeping it simple and trying to play till the last over,' he said.
SRH have once again dominated with the bat this season. Klaasen has been in top form, piling up 555 runs in 13 games at a strike rate of 155.89 with five fifties. Abhishek Sharma has proved to be unstoppable, with 507 runs at a strike rate of 201.99, including a century and three half-centuries. Kishan has also been consistent with 490 runs at a strike rate of 179.48 with five fifties.
However, their unsung heroes have been the unheralded pace duo of Sakib Hussain and Pravin Hinge, who have accounted for 25 wickets between them after the likes of veterans Jaydev Unadkat and Harshal Patel struggled at the start of the season.
Sri Lankan Eshan Malinga has been quite effective with his change of pace to claim 17 wickets while Cummins has bagged eight wickets from six games.
Having qualified for the playoffs, SRH will face a test of their title credentials against table-toppers Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their final league game on May 22, 2026.
