Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated the listless Delhi Capitals by 47 runs thanks to a stunning 68-ball 135 not out from Abhishek Sharma in their IPL 2026 encounter in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
In Sunrisers’ massive score of 242/2, Abhishek scythed through Delhi’s bowling attack with 10 sixes and as many boundaries on a placid Uppal track.
The DC run chase was never on track, as DC were reduced to 107/4 from a comfortable 107/1 as Sri Lankan Eshan Malinga (4/32 in 4 overs) and Sakib Hussain (1/29 in 4 overs) orchestrated a middle-order collapse. DC never bounced back after that.
After being called in to bowl in the last moments, spinner Harsh Dubey took 3/12 in two overs as Axar Patel’s team ultimately only managed 195/9. SRH moved up to third place in the points table by solidifying their position.
Earlier, Abhishek was unstoppable with the bat, hitting a scorching 135 not out off 68 balls. He smacked 10 sixes and an equal amount of boundaries, so neither Nitish Rana’s (0/55 in 4 overs) off-breaks nor Lungi Ngidi’s (0/41 in 4 overs) dipping slower ones affected his strokeplay.
He added 97 for the first wicket from just 53 balls with Travis Head (37 off 26 balls). In just 5.5 overs, captain Ishan Kishan (25 off 13 balls) joined the fray, adding an additional 79 runs for the second wicket to establish a stunning launchpad for the final onslaught.
Heinrich Klaasen took over towards the end when Abhishek appeared a little worn out and hammered a quickfire 37 not out off 13 balls.
The Delhi Capitals’ strategy of opening with an off-spinner—a substandard part-timer like Nitish Rana (0/55 in 4 overs)—backfired severely when he was hit for six sixes in four overs, all of which came from left-handed batters.
Tuesday was one of the occasions when the DC coaching team, led by head coach Hemang Badani and Director of Cricket Venugopal Rao, hasn’t exactly been at its tactical best in IPL 2026.
After the deliberate time-out, Rana was handed two more overs, one of which went for 23. He bowled a neat first over, but the second went for 20.
Even captain Axar Patel (1/23 in 2 overs) will have to explain why he failed to meet his quota as a front-line spinner and why Kuldeep Yadav (0/30 in 2 overs) was mistrusted following a poor over (22 runs), but someone like Rana was persevered. Over the course of their eight overs, the three DC spinners were blasted for 108 runs.
The Powerplay overs produced 67, but DC totally lost the plot between overs 7 and 15, when 116 runs were scored, which turned out to be crucial.
Abhishek’s ability to modify his bat’s downswing in response to the bowlers, particularly Ngidi, whom he played late, was the hallmark of his innings. The majority of Abhishek’s sixes were blasted in front of the wicket, suggesting that he was in the mood to show off his range-hitting abilities.
By his standards, the century was a little slower. Even so, Abhishek finished his century of 47 balls with a strike-rate north of 200. He didn’t stop there, either, as Sunrisers Hyderabad reached a mark for which a chase looked highly unlikely considering DC’s batting depth.
