The first match of the Indian Premier League 2026 (IPL 2026) was played between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). The match took place on 28 March at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, where RCB secured a comfortable and massive win by 6 wickets. While Bengaluru’s bowlers performed brilliantly in this match, their batsmen also played their role well.
In the first match of IPL 2026, RCB won the toss and decided to bowl first. This decision was completely in favor of Bengaluru. Although SRH managed to score a total of 201 runs at the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs, Bengaluru achieved this target easily. RCB successfully achieved the target in just 15.4 overs.
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Sunrisers Hyderabad innings
SRH’s start was nothing special. The team lost 3 wickets in the power play itself and could score only 49 runs. After this, Ishan Kishan took the responsibility in the middle order and led the innings well. Between 7 and 15 overs, Hyderabad lost 2 wickets and added 93 runs. Then in the death overs, RCB made a slight comeback, took wickets but was not successful in stopping the runs. In 16 to 20 overs, Sunrisers Hyderabad scored 59 runs after losing 4 wickets. In the end, SRH made a big score of 201 runs at the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs.
For SRH, Ishan Kishan scored 80 runs in 38 balls, while Aniket Verma scored 43 runs in 18 balls. On the other hand, Jacob Duffy and Romario Shepherd took 3-3 wickets for RCB. Let us tell you that this was Duffy’s IPL debut match. Apart from this, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh and Suyyash Sharma took 1 wicket each.
Royal Challengers Bangalore innings
RCB started the match on a high note. In the power play, the team scored 76 runs losing only 1 wicket. After this the Bengaluru batsmen did not stop. In the middle order, Virat Kohli along with Devdutt Padikkal made a brilliant partnership of 101 runs. Then Kohli also added 53 runs with Rajat Patidar.
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Between 7 and 15 overs, RCB scored 109 runs after losing 3 wickets. After this, as soon as the death overs started, 18 runs were scored in the first over. Ultimately, RCB scored 203 runs by losing 4 wickets in 15.4 overs and won the match by 6 wickets with 26 balls remaining.
For RCB, Virat Kohli scored the highest score of 69 runs and remained unbeaten, while Devdutt Padikkal contributed 61 runs. Captain Rajat Patidar played a short but effective innings and scored 31 runs. On the other hand, for SRH, David Paine took 2 wickets, while Harsh Dubey and Jaydev Unadkat took one wicket each.
Where did Hyderabad go wrong?
SRH had a very bad start. The opener got out in the initial overs itself and from here the team came under pressure. After this, except Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen and Aniket Verma, no other batsman could cross the digit score.
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Even in bowling the team looked completely scattered. Especially the absence of Pat Cummins was clearly visible. SRH bowlers concentrated on giving away runs rather than taking wickets, due to which the match got out of hand.
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