From 1-3 to 6-3 in three weeks: how SRH turned IPL 2026 around
For most of the first three weeks of IPL 2026, Sunrisers Hyderabad were a side without a clear identity. They scored 201 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the opener and lost the match anyway. They watched Lucknow Super Giants chase down a competitive total at home with a single ball to spare. They posted 219 against Punjab Kings at Mullanpur and saw it covered with seven balls left over. Three losses in four games, the kind of stretch that has ended SRH seasons before.
The reset began against Rajasthan Royals on April 13, with a 57-run win at home that put the bowling attack right. Since then the wins have come at the rate of one every four or five days: Chennai by ten runs in Hyderabad, Delhi by 47, Rajasthan again on the road by five wickets, and on Wednesday night the chase of 244 at the Wankhede that should have been beyond them.
Klaasen as the constant
Five wins in a row will hide a lot of underlying trouble, but the trouble at SRH is no longer where it was. Heinrich Klaasen is finishing matches the way only Heinrich Klaasen can. His unbeaten 65 off 30 balls at the Wankhede took 22 deliveries to bring up the fifty and turned a contest into a foregone conclusion the moment the second wicket fell.
Klaasen scored 480 runs at a strike rate of 171 in IPL 2024, the season SRH ran all the way to the final, and he has rediscovered the same gear this April. The South African does not need a settled bowling attack at the other end if the chase total is reachable; he just keeps the strike rate above ten and waits.
Head and Abhishek setting the floor
The opening combination has done the rest. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma put on 129 in 8.4 overs at the Wankhede, the kind of stand that turns a 244 chase into a 115 chase by the powerplay. The two have been the load-bearing element of the SRH winning run, and the runs have come without the strike-rate dips that the format usually exacts.
Salil Arora's 30 off 10 at the death is the third piece. SRH paid 1.5 crore for the 23-year-old wicketkeeper-batter at the auction and dropped him after a duck against Kolkata. He has been quietly contributing in the chase finishes since he came back into the side, and Wednesday was his loudest one.
The ladder above them
SRH sit on twelve points in third, level with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals on the same total but separated by net run rate. Punjab Kings remain top on thirteen. Five matches left to play. SRH play Kolkata Knight Riders next, on May 3, and the game now is to keep the floor of every chase as high as it has been for these past three weeks.
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