Klaasen and Kishan punish Punjab's drops as SRH 235 sends them top at Uppal
Sunrisers Hyderabad turned a routine batting afternoon at Uppal into one of their highest IPL 2026 totals on Wednesday, riding three dropped catches and a stumping miss to 235/4 against Punjab Kings. Cooper Connolly's unbeaten 107 off 59 balls, the Australian's first hundred in any format, kept the chase alive until the death overs, but PBKS still finished short by 33 runs and slipped to a third consecutive defeat.
Klaasen and Kishan punish a sloppy fielding day
Heinrich Klaasen anchored the innings with 69 off 43, while Ishan Kishan struck 55 off 32 at the top of the order after Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma had set the platform. Head made 38 off 19 with three sixes and Abhishek's 35 off 13 carried four maximums, before Nitish Kumar Reddy's 29 off 13 closed out a 63-run fourth-wicket stand inside 32 balls. Five Sunrisers batters scored at strike rates of 160 or higher.
The total was inflated by Punjab's fielding. Cooper Connolly put down a straightforward catch from Kishan at deep midwicket off Lockie Ferguson on the first ball of the eighth over, and one over later Shashank Singh shelled Klaasen at deep square leg off Yuzvendra Chahal. Ferguson dropped Kishan again on the second ball of the 11th, and wicketkeeper Prabhsimran Singh missed a stumping on Kishan in the same passage of play. PBKS have now spilled 16 catches across IPL 2026, joint-most in the tournament alongside Chennai Super Kings, with a 71 per cent catching efficiency that is the lowest in the competition.
Connolly's lone hand and a 33-run defeat
Punjab's reply rested almost entirely on Connolly. The Australian all-rounder reached his maiden IPL century off 57 balls, finishing 107 not out with seven fours and eight sixes, but wickets at the other end never let the required rate settle. Prabhsimran fell for 3, opening partner Priyansh Arya for 1, and Shreyas Iyer went for 5 inside the powerplay. Marcus Stoinis and Suryansh Shedge added cameos in the middle overs, but Pat Cummins's 2 for 34 broke the tempo and PBKS closed on 202/7.
SRH go top, PBKS slide off the summit
The 33-run win pushes Sunrisers to the top of the IPL 2026 table on 14 points from 11 matches, with Punjab dropping a place to second on 13 from 10. Royal Challengers Bengaluru sit third on 12 from nine, two games in hand on the leader and one on Punjab. Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans are also level on 12 from 10, leaving five sides bunched inside two points and the playoff race set to be settled in the next ten days.
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