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Sunrisers Hyderabad booked their place in the Indian Premier League 2026 playoffs on Monday night with a five-wicket win over the Chennai Super Kings at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. Ishan Kishan starred in the chase with a superb 70 off 47 balls, but it was his post-match celebration that became the biggest talking point of the night. Moments after sealing the win, Kishan turned towards the Chepauk crowd, mimicked Chennai’s ‘Whistle Podu’ gesture, and appeared to signal fans toward the exits constantly for a few minutes. This instantly went viral and triggered massive backlash online from fans.
With speculation continuing around MS Dhoni’s IPL future, many fans arrived at Chepauk fearing this could potentially be one of Dhoni’s final appearances at the stadium.
Ishan Kishan be like: Anni muskuni intiki ***geyandi ani antunaduu😂 pic.twitter.com/W6AIQKyqap
— strawberry (@ndukuchepali) May 18, 2026
Cricket fans called it non-sportsmanship and disrespectful towards fans. “Very, very arrogant attitude… You cannot mock the spectators. Cricketers should remember that their earning is due to the spectators visiting ground to watch their matches. All the money cricketers are earning bcoz of these spectators. This arrogance is not good for cricket,” said one of them on X.
Very very arrogant attitude… You cannot mock the spectators. Cricketers should remember that their earning is due to the spectators visiting ground to watch their matches. All the money cricketers are earning bcoz of these spectators. This arrogance is not good for cricket.
— Rajashekar Siddapur (@RajSidd76) May 19, 2026
“Unprofessional behaviour after whistling, he is a fun guy. But couldn’t have lost the respect from Fans of CSK or even SRH,” said another fan.
‘I Just Wanted To Finish The Game For Them’: Ishan Kishan Opens Up After Emotional Knock
After winning the match, Kishan revealed that this win was special as the “motivation was today, my cousin is just standing there. He lost his sister. It was a tough time in our family and they are watching the match for the first time here,” he said in the post-match interview.
“So I just wanted to finish the game for them, and I’m glad they were here to witness this innings, and I was able to finish this game. I was just feeling blessed from upstairs. I had that sense of power, like, yes, I can do it if I’m there for the team. We will qualify and especially, he’ll be happy about it,” he added.
For Chennai Super Kings, the defeat could not have come at a worse time. The loss leaves their playoff hopes hanging by a thread, with the team now heavily dependent on other results and net run rate permutations.
From Hyderabad’s perspective, though, this was the performance of a team peaking at the perfect time. SRH now comfortably cruised into the top four with 16 points alongside Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
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