"Nitish playing a lovely knock": Ishan Kishan captain credits Nitish Kumar Reddy after all-round performance in SRH's massive win vs KKR

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) got their first victory in the IPL 2026 season, defeating the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Not only through their batting, but also they outplayed the multi-time IPL winners with their bowling as well.

On April 2, Sunrisers defeated KKR by a massive margin of 65 runs. The home team started the run chase well through an explosive cameo of Finn Allen. SRH bowlers took very little to make a comeback. Without their premier pacer Pat Cummins, the newly shaped bowling unit of the team pulled off a stunning victory. KKR found no match against SRH tonight.

SRH openers offered the team a flying start

After winning the toss, Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane chose to bowl first as the wicket has some bounce in the early stages of the match. Like the Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Kolkata Knight Riders missed the service of their star pacers.

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Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, the openers of SRH, took their team to a flying start. Head scored 46, and Sharma got 48 in the individual efforts. SRH raced to the 100-run mark soon after the power play. The bowlers in Purple made a comeback through their Zimbabwe pacer Blessing Muzarabani, who took 4 crucial wickets.

KKR lacked quality in all departments vs Hyderabad

From the middle-order, Heinrich Klassen and Nitish Kumar Reddy stabilized the things against Hyderabad. Klassen scored a half-century and secured 226 for the Sunrisers.

Finn Allen's 28-run knock off 7 raised the expectations high on the home team. But soon, they got a reality check. Angkrish Raghuvanshi's 52 and Rinku Singh's 35 kept the team in the contest for a while but not for the entire innings. Experienced pacer Jaydev Unadkat took 3 wickets for SRH, while Eshan Malinga and Nitish Kumar Reddy took a brace each.

Ishan Kishan credited the entire team for the crucial win

After the match, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Ishan Kishan mentioned that the wicket of Finn Allen was crucial for them, and he credited the entire team for the huge win.

"I was happy with everyone putting in the effort, but I don't think the pitch was that good. Head and Abhishek made our game easy. It was a complete team effort. We planned to take wickets. Harsh just bowled that ball and we were lucky to get that wicket," Ishan Kishan said during the match after ceremony.

"It’s always the team, yeah. So really happy the way they were committed on the ground and, you know, everyone was putting their energy, and that was something I asked for before the game. And I was just happy to see all of them putting their effort", he added further.

"So, to be very honest, I give credit to both the batters and Klassy taking it to the end, Nitish playing a lovely knock. So, it was overall a team effort, I feel," he said further to appreciate the team effort.

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