SRH Beat Delhi Capitals by 47 Runs — IPL 2026 Match 31 Review

There are centuries, and then there are centuries that stop a conversation. Abhishek Sharma's 135 not out off 68 balls at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Tuesday evening was the second kind. Not because it arrived against a weak attack — Kuldeep Yadav is still one of the most dangerous spinners in the tournament, Mitchell Starc still lethal with the new ball. But because of what Abhishek did to Kuldeep in a single over: six, four, six, four, twenty runs in five deliveries, hit with the casual precision of a man who had simply decided that the best left-arm wrist-spinner in the Delhi attack was going to be the evening's entertainment. From that moment, Hyderabad's crowd, already warm, became a furnace. And Delhi Capitals' plans became a photograph of what once might have been. Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 47 runs — 242 for 2 against 195 for 9 — and the scoreline does not quite capture the completeness of it. Delhi were competitive in the early overs of their chase, KL Rahul and Nitish Rana constructing an 86-run second-wicket partnership that gave the dressing room something to believe in. But Eshan Malinga broke the backbone of that belief in the space of two balls — two wickets in consecutive deliveries, a golden duck for the redeemed David Miller, and suddenly the equation had turned from improbable to impossible. SRH's third consecutive win. Their fourth of the season. And a Tuesday night that will be remembered for one specific number: 135.

Delhi Capitals' toss decision made rational sense. This ground produces heavy dew from 8:30 PM, and any captain offered first use of the fielding conditions would take it — the gripping pitch reduces scoring opportunities for the side batting first while the smooth conditions in the second innings reward clean hitting. Axar Patel won the toss and did exactly what the conditions suggested. What no pre-match calculation could account for was the single-minded intention of Abhishek Sharma. Ishan Kishan, batting at three in his captain's role, chipped in with a brisk 25 off 13 balls — just enough to help set the tempo and join Abhishek in dismantling the Kuldeep over that effectively ended the contest as a competition. Abhishek carried everything forward, his 10 fours and 10 sixes arriving with such regularity that the Hyderabad scoreboard operators might have needed a moment to keep up. When Heinrich Klaasen arrived in the 15th over, Abhishek already had more than a century to his name — and together they added 66 runs in an unbroken third-wicket stand that pushed the total from formidable to suffocating. Klaasen's contribution: 37 runs off just 13 balls, three fours, three sixes, the signature cameo of a man who treats any target below 300 as a missed opportunity. SRH finished at 242 for 2. The Rajiv Gandhi crowd, already on their feet, stayed there.

Delhi needed to do something extraordinary in their chase, and for a while — briefly, encouragingly — they showed they might. KL Rahul, whose elegant counter-attacking batting has been one of DC's genuine bright lights this season, played his strokes with the assurance of a man who had made a fifty here before. Nitish Rana complemented him with an aggressive 57 off 30 balls. Their 86-run second-wicket partnership, built at a rate that gave the Capitals genuine hope, made the pursuit feel achievable in the way that only bold partnerships can. The crowd, so unanimously partisan, began to feel something that is not easy to manufacture in a home stronghold: mild anxiety. And then Eshan Malinga arrived with the cold efficiency of a man who has no interest in what the scoreboard says — only in where the stumps are. Two wickets in two deliveries. David Miller, carrying the full weight of his Chinnaswamy redemption arc and the expectation that had been loaded onto his broad shoulders all week, walked in and walked back — bowled for a golden duck. The hat-trick ball did not claim a third, but it did not need to. The psychology was done. DC lost five, six, seven wickets in the manner that chasing teams collapse when the asking rate is climbing and the bowler has found his rhythm and the crowd is getting louder rather than quieter. They finished at 195 for 9 — a score that, in a different match, might have been competitive. Tonight it was never close to enough.

The Rajiv Gandhi Stadium played as Hyderabad pitches always play in the evening: genuine pace early, the ball carrying through with honest bounce, before the surface slowed in the middle overs and brought spin into the conversation. Dew arrived on schedule, but its effect on a second innings chasing 242 was essentially cosmetic — when you need more than twelve an over from the start and your best partnership has just been broken by two consecutive balls, the fact that the ball is a little slippery becomes the least of your problems. Kuldeep Yadav's figures would have surprised anyone who has watched him bowl at his best in this tournament — the six, four, six, four over tells its own story. Whether it was the pitch slowing the googly's turn, or whether Abhishek's aggressive advancement stripped him of the ability to land his variations accurately, the consequence was the same: one of the tournament's most reliable spinners had his worst over of IPL 2026, and the match was settled in those ten deliveries.

To fully understand what Abhishek Sharma produced last night, hold this number: 135 not out off 68 balls. His ninth T20 century. The most by any Indian batter in T20 cricket's history, equalling Virat Kohli's record. On a ground whose dimensions demand genuine power — the straight boundary is not forgiving, the midwicket rope is not short — and against an attack that included two world-class operators in Kuldeep and Starc. He hit ten fours. He hit ten sixes. The twenty-ball stretch through the middle overs when he essentially redlined his innings — the Kuldeep over, then consecutive boundaries off Starc, then the carnage in the slog overs shared with Klaasen — was not calculated aggression so much as a state of mind. There was something inevitable about every shot. A pull played so early the fielder had barely positioned. A straight six hit so cleanly the ball seemed to travel upward of its own accord. What makes Abhishek's batting special at this level is not merely the power, though the power is exceptional. It is that he never appears to be trying. The century came and went and he kept batting, as though the milestone were a detail rather than a destination.

We tipped Sunrisers Hyderabad to win — the home advantage, Kishan's captain's form, the sheer weight of batting talent were all factors we leaned on, and they proved correct. We also called the Kuldeep-Klaasen matchup as potentially the defining passage of play — and while it was Abhishek rather than Klaasen who ultimately dismantled Kuldeep most dramatically, the prediction held in spirit. That over produced 20 runs and ended DC's best containment strategy. Where we missed: David Miller. We devoted a full spotlight to his Chinnaswamy redemption, his renewed psychological authority, his ability to finish games from anywhere. He was bowled for a golden duck by two consecutive Malinga deliveries before he had faced a ball. Cricket's humour, as always, is sharper than any analyst's.

Three wins in a row has transformed the conversation around SRH's season. After an uncertain start, Ishan Kishan's interim captaincy has built something that feels less like a lucky run and more like an identity — a batting lineup that is willing to dominate from ball one, a bowling attack with young pace weapons in Eshan Malinga and Praful Hinge that teams have not yet solved, and a fortress at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium that visiting sides are beginning to fear rather than merely respect. For Delhi Capitals, the arithmetic remains workable but the psychological toll of a 47-run defeat — of watching Miller fall to a golden duck on the back of one of the season's most talked-about redemption stories — must be addressed. Axar Patel's bowling tactics, particularly around Kuldeep's role against left-handers at the top of SRH's batting, will be the tactical conversation that occupies Delhi's coaching staff before their next match. Both sides move on. But only one moves on with momentum.