Sunrisers Hyderabad secured a spot in the 2026 Indian Premier League playoffs after defeating the Chennai Super Kings on Monday, May 18, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
The victory eliminated Chennai from playoff contention as Sunrisers continued its aggressive campaign under split leadership between Ishan Kishan and regular captain Pat Cummins.
Kishan Shines with Bat and Captaincy
Kishan scored 70 runs in the match and led the team during the first half of the season while Cummins recovered from a lower back lumbar stress injury suffered in July last year.
Under Kishan's captaincy, the team secured four wins out of seven matches, rebounding from three losses in their opening four fixtures before Cummins returned to lead the squad for six matches.
Regular skipper Cummins praised the leadership transition and noted that he preferred to let the stand-in captain manage the team independently based on his successful domestic track record.
"We had a few good options. He (Kishan) has had a great domestic season as captain.
I got asked a question (on stand-in captaincy), and I said 'Oh, Ishan would be great, the boys love him'.
He was awesome. I let him do his thing.
I didn't get too involved, was there if he needed me. He knows how to captain well, so I stayed out of his way," said Cummins.
The franchise retained its aggressive playing style throughout the tournament after receiving strong backing from the team ownership following an underwhelming campaign during the previous season.
"The owners have been great. The first half of last year, I don't think we played anywhere near our potential.
We won our last three or four games (last season), which showed that we were onto something with the style we wanted to play.
Us at our best are right up there with any other team. We came into this season knowing that last season was as bad as we could play.
Couple of new players too have bought into the aggressive style that brought us success," added Cummins.
The tournament also highlighted the rise of 15-year-old Rajasthan Royals batsman Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who leads the tournament run-scorers with 579 runs across 13 innings, including a century on debut last year at age 14.
Cummins also expressed his philosophy regarding the freedom given to aggressive batsmen like Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head, and Kishan to play at their full potential without rigid constraints.
"Abhishek, Klaasen, Trav, Ishan shouldn't be told that they can only bat a certain way. You want to see them at their full flight," said Cummins.
Sunrisers Hyderabad has one remaining group stage match to determine whether the team finishes in the top two positions, which grants two opportunities to qualify for the tournament final.
