Ahmedabad: Gujarat Titans delivered a dominating all-round brilliant performance, dismantling Sunrisers Hyderabad by a massive 82 runs in the 56th match of the Indian Premier League on Tuesday, 12 May, at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. The absolutely devastating bowling spell by Kagiso Rabada in the powerplay completely destroyed the top order of SRH, while Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar anchored the innings brilliantly with the bat and helped GT move to the top of the points table.
The match began with SRH won the toss and elected to bowl first. Starting the innings, GT lost their top-order wickets inside the powerplay. Shubman Gill was dismissed by Praful Hinge for 7 runs off 5 balls, while Jos Buttler was also dismissed for 7 off 11 balls, leaving GT reeling at 26/2 in 5.1 overs. In the pressure situation, Nishant Sidhu played a quick counter-attacking knock of 22 off 14 balls before being dismissed by Pat Cummins. Sai Sudharsan played a brilliant, calculative, and composed knock of 61 off 44 balls, anchoring the innings on a tricky pitch where wickets were falling quickly. He smashed 5 fours and 2 sixes while bringing up a magnificent half-century. The half-century also helped Sai Sudharsan achieve a remarkable IPL milestone as he surpassed Virat Kohli in an elite consistency list. Sai now has three consecutive IPL seasons with 500-plus runs, having achieved the feat from 2024 to 2026, while Kohli had earlier accomplished it from 2023 to 2025. However, Sai was eventually dismissed by Saqib Hussain after a good catch by Praful Hinge. After his dismissal, Washington Sundar provided the much-needed and crucial runs in the middle and death overs. He came up with an impressive half-century before being dismissed after scoring a valuable 50 off 33 balls, including 7 fours and a six. With that crucial contribution, GT posted a competitive total of 168/5 after 20 overs.
In bowling for SRH, Praful Hinge performed impressively, finishing with figures of 2 wickets for 17 runs in 3 overs, while Pat Cummins also delivered a disciplined spell, taking 1 wicket for 20 runs in his 4 overs.
Chasing 169, SRH were completely demolished by GT’s destructive pace attack. Mohammed Siraj took the wicket of Travis Head in the very first over for a duck. However, Kagiso Rabada produced a sensational and catastrophic spell in the powerplay. He dismissed Abhishek Sharma for 6 off 4 balls after inducing an inside edge that crashed onto the stumps.
After that, Rabada quickly removed Ishan Kishan for 11 off 7 balls in the 3.1 over and later dismissed Smaran Ravichandran for 9 off 15 balls in the final over of the powerplay. With these wickets inside the powerplay this season, Rabada equalled the second-highest tally ever recorded in a single IPL edition. Only Mohammed Shami, who claimed 17 powerplay wickets in IPL 2023, remains ahead of him. Rabada also comfortably leads the IPL 2026 powerplay wicket charts, ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jofra Archer, and Mohammed Siraj. SRH were reeling at 32/4, while Kagiso Rabada came up with impressive figures of 3 wickets for 28 runs in 4 overs and deservedly became the Player of the Match. Jason Holder and Prasidh Krishna maintained the pressure by taking wickets in the middle and death overs. Holder claimed the crucial wickets of Heinrich Klaasen for 14 off 16 balls, Nitish Kumar Reddy for 2 off 4 balls, and Shivansh Kumar for 4 off 6 balls, finishing with outstanding figures of 3/20 in 4 overs. Prasidh Krishna dismissed Salil Arora and Pat Cummins, who provided some late acceleration with 19 off 9 balls, including 1 four and 2 sixes, before getting out. Rashid Khan took the final wicket of Praful Hinge as SRH were bowled out for just 86 in 14.5 overs.
With this emphatic victory, GT registered their fifth consecutive win, making it their biggest-ever win by margin of runs in IPL history. With 16 points, GT are now at the top of the table, strengthening their position in the top four. Meanwhile, SRH suffered a major setback along with a significant blow to their Net Run Rate. The result also marked SRH’s biggest defeat by runs in IPL history and the first time since 2024 that they failed to chase a target below 200. Despite the heavy defeat, SRH continue to hold the third position on the points table.
