Bengaluru, March 28: The first match of IPL 2026 took place on Saturday at the M. Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium, featuring a thrilling contest between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Ishan Kishan made a remarkable debut as captain, scoring a powerful 80 runs off just 38 balls. This performance set a record for the highest score by a batsman on debut as captain for SRH.
Kishan surpassed the previous record held by Manish Pandey, who scored an unbeaten 69 runs off 41 balls in his debut match as captain in 2021. David Warner had also set a benchmark in 2015 with 53 runs off 42 balls. Coming in to bat at number three, Kishan displayed an impressive strike rate of 210, hitting 8 fours and 5 sixes during his innings. After the early dismissals of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, Kishan effectively stabilized the innings for SRH.
He formed a crucial partnership of 97 runs with Heinrich Klaasen, showcasing dominance against the RCB bowling attack. With this innings, Kishan also crossed the milestone of 3,000 runs in IPL, becoming the sixth fastest player to achieve this feat in terms of balls faced, completing it in 2,180 deliveries, surpassing KL Rahul’s record of 2,203 balls. Klaasen contributed with a quick 31 runs off 22 balls.
However, the performance of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head was disappointing, with Sharma managing only 7 runs off 8 balls and Head scoring 11 runs off 9 balls. Nitish Kumar Reddy also struggled, scoring just 1 run. In the final overs, Aniket Verma played a brilliant knock, scoring 43 runs off just 18 balls, helping SRH post a total of 201 runs after losing 9 wickets in their 20 overs.
Bhupendra Singh Chundawat is a seasoned technology journalist with over 22 years of experience in the media industry. He specializes in covering the global technology landscape, with a deep focus on manufacturing trends and the geopolitical impact on tech companies. Currently serving as the Editor at Udaipur Kiran, his insights are shaped by decades of hands-on reporting and editorial leadership in the fast-evolving world of technology.
