Gujarat Titans vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 56th Match, Indian Premier League 2026 - CommentaryGT vs SRH, 56th Match, Indian Premier League 2026 - Commentary

The Gujarat Titans are now in first place on the points table, while Sunrisers Hyderabad stay in third. The race for the playoffs is getting very exciting. All eyes are now on the top seven teams. Tomorrow, RCB plays KKR, and if RCB wins, they will move back to the top spot. Be sure to join us for the live coverage. Until then, this is Sri Krishna AS signing off on behalf of Anurag Hegde, Nikhil Jadhav and Praveen P.

Kagiso Rabada | Player of the match: (On the dropped catch in the 3rd over) I didn’t react fast enough. I didn’t judge the speed of the ball there. And that was a crucial wicket to get. After we had them, I think it was two down. Would have been nice to have them three down there. So luckily we got the wicket in the end. Season in, season out, all you try to do is the best you can for the team that you’re in. I’ve just been backed and it’s been clear what my role has been. So yeah, I just leave everything out there for the team. That’s as simple as that. Yeah, rhythm is everything. And for me, it’s about bowling as much as I can, but also preserving myself to be match-ready. But rhythm is everything and you need to find a way to somehow click. Well, it’s just about finding out the kind of pitch we’re playing on and bowling accordingly. But we each have our own natural attributes that we bring as bowlers. And then it’s about seeing how much you can extract off those attributes without looking too far ahead. And then, if your strength is not really working out, you can look at something else. So that’s the sort of package we’re looking at. (If hard-length was the way to go on this surface) Yeah, 100%. They showed how to bowl on it, and then we just tried to follow suit and do it a bit better. So that’s what we did. The wicket got a little bit more sticky, really got hard for the batters. So yeah, the patience and the simplicity worked on this pitch.

Shubman Gill | Gujarat Titans captain: (This was a very different sort of a victory?) Definitely, like you spoke at the toss. Teams batting first have done well, and it worked out for us pretty nicely. But I think we bowled very well. 170 on this kind of a wicket, we always knew it's going to be tricky. If we bowl well, we'll always be in the game. (Was there a sort of a target in mind?) Yes, sir. We spoke about, if we get anywhere close to 160-170, I think it's gonna be.. It won't be easy for them, especially with our bowling attack. So that was the chat in the middle. (I think the plans have worked perfectly fine?) Yeah, definitely. But also, I think the way Sai (Sudharsan) and Washi (Sundar) batted, getting us close to 170 at one point, it looked difficult to reach there. And also, the way we bowled in the powerplay, we have been bowling pretty well in the powerplay. So, kudos to both of our bowlers. (Coming to the top of the table, what do you think will the outlook be?) Honestly, it's all about, still being consistent, still trying to be as ruthless as we can. And, you know, we play the kind of cricket, we are not the kind of a team that play a particular style or brand of cricket. We want to be the team that sees the wicket, assesses the condition. If it's a batting first, 240 wicket, go for it. But it's also important to assess that the wicket is not that easy to get those 170-180 runs that's better than getting 140-150. (Addition of Holder to the attack adds value?) Yeah, definitely. He's such an experienced campaigner and the kind of length he's been hitting and he's been very relentless for us, bowling almost in every game, four overs on the trot. Not easy in this weather, but he's doing a terrific job for us.

Washington Sundar: (How happy are you?) Definitely happy. I mean, I was just focusing on reading the situation. And obviously the wicket was quite different from other games. So I just wanted to sort of understand what shots can be played on this wicket and be successful. And also it was important for one of the set batter to play till the end. It helps. (That six into square leg when you were pretty much sitting down on the ground. How good was that?) It did (was middled), I mean, I was sort of trying to get that shot right, previously as well, but they were nailing the yorkers really well. Happy it worked the other way. (What was the plan?) The plan was to not think much. That was honestly the plan. But yes, thoughts do come every now and then. But yes, as I said, I was more focused on understanding the wicket and also the situation. And it demanded one of us, myself or Sai, to play it to the end. And happy with the way that I sort of finished. (Was it a conscious effort to look for boundaries?) 100%. I mean, until 17th or 18th over, I didn't really want to go all out. But of course, in the last couple of overs, I tried to get as many boundaries as possible. Also, sort of looked to play the shots that would be possible on this wicket. But yeah, I mean, things went very well today. (What's it like facing Rabada and Siraj in the nets?) I don't think I should give away too much, but yeah, I've got to be really disciplined and watch the ball closely and just expect that they would miss a couple of deliveries where you could get a boundary or two and then eventually rotate strike. I've actually given a little bit, but not too much. (How satisfying is it to get to 168 and then to defend it?) I mean, speaks a lot about our team, the setup, the kind of people who are part of the setup as well. They give a lot of importance on playing some good cricket, no matter the situation, conditions. And obviously, we'll try and understand the conditions and play according to it. That's really important even in this format. And I think we've done that pretty well this year.

168 runs defended by GT is also the second-lowest total successfully defended in IPL 2026 after 159 by RR against LSG at Lucknow.

– This is the sixth successive win for GT against SRH in seven completed games, including four wins in Ahmedabad.

– Fifth successive victory is GT’s joint-longest winning streak alongside five in 2022.

– 168 runs is the joint-lowest total successfully defended by GT at Ahmedabad, after 168 vs MI in 2024.

– This is the first time since 2024 that SRH failed to chase a sub-200 target in IPL.

Biggest defeat margins for SRH in IPL (by runs)
82 vs GT, Ahmedabad, 2026*
80 vs KKR, Kolkata, 2025
78 vs CSK, Chennai, 2024
77 vs CSK, Hyderabad, 2013

– This is the second instance of GT seamers taking 9 wickets in an IPL innings, after 9 against the same team at Hyderabad in 2023.

Most dismissals by a Wicket-keeper in an IPL innings
5 - Kumar Sangakkara (Deccan) vs RCB, Hyderabad, 2011
5 - Jos Buttler (GT) vs SRH, Ahmedabad, 2026

Lowest all-out totals for SRH in IPL
86 vs GT, Ahmedabad, 2026 (2nd inng)*
96 vs MI, Hyderabad, 2019 (2nd inng)
113 vs MI, Hyderabad, 2015 (1st inng)
113 vs KKR, Chennai, 2024 Final (1st inng)
114 vs PBKS, Dubai, 2022 (2nd inng)

– 86 runs is the second-lowest all-out total against GT after 82 by LSG at Pune in 2022.

Biggest win margins for GT (by runs)
82 vs SRH, Ahmedabad, 2026*
77 vs RR, Jaipur, 2026
62 vs MI, Ahmedabad, 2023 Q2
62 vs LSG, Pune, 2022
58 vs RR, Ahmedabad, 2025

Pat Cummins: I feel they bowled really well in that second innings. I was pretty happy with when we walked off at the start, but yeah, pretty tricky wicket. I think they made the most of it, their bowlers, they bowled really well. So, yeah, maybe try and look at ways to get through that spell, but, you know, they deserve a bit of credit. Yeah, I mean, you always look at it. It looked like a pretty tough wicket once you kind of hit that back of the length and they didn't really give us much to score. So, perhaps in our bowling innings, you kind of, you learn from that, you think maybe we could have held our lengths just a little bit longer. But overall, you know, I thought that, that's as good as T20 bowling as you're going to see from them. Our batting order's been fantastic. So I don't think we need to read it too far into today. I think all four of our top four have over 400 runs. So, the guys are going really well. This happens in T20 cricket. So we go to a couple of venues that we know quite well. So, take some confidence into that. (On qualification scenarios) I think getting ahead of the count pretty early (is important). I think we won five or six out of the last seven. Gives you a bit of breathing room these last few games. So, yeah, we've still got two games yet to qualify. So again, going back to what got us those wins in the first place and yeah, putting this one behind us pretty quickly.

22:56 Local Time, 17:26 GMT, 22:56 IST: Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered a catastrophic batting collapse in their chase of 169, eventually folding for a mere 86 runs in 14.5 overs. The second innings began in disastrous fashion as Mohammed Siraj dismissed Travis Head for a duck in a wicket-maiden opening over, followed quickly by Kagiso Rabada removing Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan to leave SRH reeling at 23/3. The middle order offered no resistance against the relentless Gujarat pace attack, as Jason Holder and Prasidh Krishna tore through the remaining specialist batters, including the dangerous Heinrich Klaasen. Despite a late, defiant cameo from captain Pat Cummins, who struck a six and a four, the innings ended abruptly when Rashid Khan claimed the final wicket via a stumping, sealing a massive 82-run victory for the Gujarat Titans.

Rashid Khan to Praful Hinge, THATS OUT!! Stumped!!