Cummins tastes defeat as Green's KKR triumph

Pat Cummins has presided over his first defeat since returning to the Indian Premier League and conceded ruefully that the most expensive over of his IPL career had contributed to the end of Sunrisers Hyderabad's five-match winning streak. 

Cummins had overseen wins in his first two matches since returning to skipper the team following his injury break and was still eyeing the treble after his Test teammate Travis Head had blasted a second half-century in succession to lead Hyderabad to 165 all out against the resurgent Kolkata Knight Riders.

But when Cummins' second over was smashed for 27 runs, with Finn Allen pummelling him for 22 of them, he reflected how it set the tone for KKR to end up breezing to victory on 3-169 by seven wickets with 10 balls to spare.

"Not our best day. The margins are quite small and if I hadn't gone for about 30 in one over at the start, it might have been different as well," sighed Cummins. "Those little moments can make a big difference."

The skipper was being a little harsh on himself, especially as after he'd sent a legside wide sailing to the boundary first ball and then got clubbed for 6, 2, 6, 4 and 4 by Allen, he did finally get his man on the seventh ball of the over, caught at deep midwicket. 

After that, the skipper reverted to normal Cummins mode, and he went for only 20 off his other three tight overs.

But Sunrisers were never really in with a sniff as captain Ajinkya Rahane (43), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (59) and Rinku Singh (22no) guided KKR to their third-straight win.

Earlier, Head had bludgeoned 61 off 28, with nine fours and three sixes, but KKR's attack, including Cameron Green (1-34) who took the wicket of the dangerous Heinrich Klaasen and took two catches, had done well to blunt the Sunrisers.

The canny Sunil Narine (2-31) was once again their pick, becoming the first overseas bowler to take 200 IPL wickets with his double strike in a single over.

Stoinis leaks 14 off final over in Punjab loss

In the later match in Ahmedabad, it proved a painful night for allrounder Marcus Stoinis who, after hitting a brisk 40 in league-leading Punjab Kings' 9-163, was charged with bowling the death over with Gujarat Titans requiring 11 to win.

Keeping his nerve, he got the Titans down to needing three off his last two deliveries, but Stoinis served up a full toss off the penultimate ball which was whacked by Washington Sundar (40no) over fine leg for six.

IPL 2026 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Total points PTS
1 Royal Challengers Bengaluru Men RCB	13	9	4	0	0	1.065	0	18
2 Gujarat Titans GUT	13	8	5	0	0	0.4	0	16
3 Sunrisers Hyderabad SUN	13	8	5	0	0	0.35	0	16
4 Rajasthan Royals RAJ	13	7	6	0	0	0.083	0	14
5 Punjab Kings KXI	13	6	6	0	1	0.227	0	13
6 Chennai Super Kings CSK	13	6	7	0	0	-0.016	0	12
7 Delhi Capitals Men DEL	13	6	7	0	0	-0.871	0	12
8 Kolkata Knight Riders KKR	12	5	6	0	1	-0.038	0	11
9 Mumbai Indians MI	12	4	8	0	0	-0.504	0	8
10 Lucknow Super Giants LSG	13	4	9	0	0	-0.702	0	8

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

PTS: Total points

Australians in IPL 2026

Chennai Super Kings: Matt Short ($255k), Spencer Johnson ($255k, replaces Nathan Ellis ($340k))

Delhi Capitals: Mitchell Starc ($2m)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Josh Hazlewood ($2.13m), Tim David ($510k)

Punjab Kings: Marcus Stoinis ($1.9m), Ben Dwarshuis ($745k), Mitchell Owen ($510k), Cooper Connolly ($510k), Xavier Bartlett ($136k)

Kolkata Knight Riders: Cameron Green ($3.5m)

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins ($3.5m), Travis Head ($2.38m), Jack Edwards ($510k, withdrawn)

Lucknow Super Giants: Josh Inglis ($1.49m), Mitchell Marsh ($578k)