Table of Contents
Sunrisers Hyderabad have been officially eliminated from the competition, and the Rajasthan Royals, under their new skipper Riyan Parag, have made it to the 2nd Qualifier of the competition after having defeated the Sunrisers by a margin of 47 runs.
The Rajasthan Royals made it to the playoffs after a tough fight in the IPL 2026 group-stage games. The Riyan Parag-led side might have lost some matches into the season and then qualified into the playoffs after having won just eight matches in the season.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, made a contradictory start to the season but then went on to win eight of their last ten games in the season. Despite having earned 18 points in the season, the Sunrisers could only qualify for the Eliminator and were knocked out of the playoffs of the IPL season.
SRH had no answer to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi
The Sunrisers skipper, Pat Cummins, won the toss and elected to field first against a tough batting opposition. Cummins and the SRH bowlers were thrashed for runs as Vaibhav Sooryavanshi made a promising start to the game.
Having been handed a stellar start, Dhruv Jurel scored another quickfire half-century in the season, and with that, the Royals piled on 243 runs at the end of their innings. The Sunrisers Hyderabad, in return, could not even manage 200 runs as they lost the match by a massive margin of 47 runs.
Jofra Archer was the pick of the bowlers for the Royals with three wickets in the season, and Ravindra Jadeja, Nandre Burger, and Sushant Mishra went on to pick two wickets each. SRH were eliminated from the contest after their loss in the game.
SRH's winning streak against RR ended in a massive knockout upset
Sunrisers Hyderabad's winning streak against the Rajasthan Royals was finally interrupted this season after they had managed to win six matches into the season. The Sunrisers have won six consecutive matches between 2023 and 2026, which ended in the IPL 2026 eiminator as Riyan Parag's RR won their first game after several seasons.
Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen wrapped up their season with 600+ runs each and became the seventh pair in IPL history to have scored more than 600 runs each. While Klaasen finished the season with 624 runs, Ishan Kishan amassed 602 runs in the season. They are also among non-openers with 600+ runs in a single season.
I like to be a perfectionist: Riyan Parag
"I like to be a perfectionist. Today we should have gotten 260, right?" said the RR skipper Riyan Parag, who was not impressed with his team's performance despite having posted the second highest total in the history of IPL playoffs.
"Was impressed with the way we bowled; we came back really well. Yeah, just leave him alone; let him go and have fun. He likes batting, like I've said before, so we get him a lot of batting practice at the nets and stuff like that. And then he goes out and does his thing," said Riyan Parag, reflecting on young Sooryanashi's special knock.
"No, we keep on having, like, fun little banters. I feel the first ball he bowled to Abhishek that I almost got a catch, but there it was wide. So I went up to Jofra. I was like, Joff, I need you to be a little straighter. And then he gets the wicket and he asks me smiling inside, is that straight enough for you?
"So I feel he's one of the best, if not the best in world cricket. And I feel when he's bowling 150 clicks, you don't ask him to bowl slow. You don't ask him to do anything. You just remind him if at all he needs any reminding of, otherwise he just does his job," explained Riyan Parag on RR's fiery paceman Jofra Archer.
