Heinrich Klaasen put the finishing touches on an absolute show from Abhishek Sharma that set the Sunrisers Hyderabad on their way to a crushing 47-run win over the Delhi Capitals in their Tata IPL match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal, Hyderabad, on Tuesday night.
Sharma crunched 10 sixes and 10 fours on his way to the fifth highest IPL score in history, with him also holding the third highest, as he carried his bat to finish unbeaten on 135 off 68 deliveries, which helped the hosts post a monster 242-2 in their 20 overs batting first.
Around him it was a trio of cameos, with Klaasen’s unbeaten blitz (37 off 13 balls, featuring three fours and three sixes), being the best of the lot, while Travis Head struck 37 off 26 (2x4; 2x6) at the top of the order, and captain Ishan Kishan looked good for his 25 off 13 (2x4; 1x6), before he was unluckily run out.
No boundary is big enough when Klaasen is at the crease 🟠🚀
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) April 21, 2026
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Sharma was the chief contributor in the first two partnerships, as 97 off 53 balls was scored for the first wicket with Head, before the Australian opener pulled a drag down from Axar Patel straight to Sameer Rizvi at deep midwicket in the ninth over.
Kishan then joined Sharma and they added 79 off 35 balls, before Nitish Rana got his hand to a ball driven back at him by the opener, and deflected it onto the stumps with the captain outside of his ground, leaving them on 176-2 in the 15th over.
The carnage then continued over the final five overs, as Klaasen stepped up and helped Sharma give them a big finish as they combined for an unbeaten 66-run stand off 32 balls to get them to a huge total.
Abhishek Sharma 🤩đźź
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) April 21, 2026
It's fireworks from the Sunrisers' opener in Hyderabad đź‘Ź
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The Capitals' chase got off to a poor start as they lost opener Pathum Nissanka (8) early, caught by Liam Livingstone off Dilshan Madushanka at the start of the third over leaving them on 21-1.
Rana, 57 off 30 balls (7x4; 3x6), and captain KL Rahul, 37 off 23 (1x4; 3x6), then kept the visitors in the hunt with an 86-run second-wicket partnership off 45 balls.
But any chance they had disappeared in five balls, when Rahul pulled a full toss from Sakib Hussain straight to Sharma at deep backward square leg, followed by Eshan Malinga having Rana caught by Sharma again, running in from long-on, and bowling David Miller for a first-ball duck, leaving the Capitals in tatters on 107-4 in the 11th over.
Rizvi, 41 off 28 (2x4; 2x6), and Tristan Stubbs, 27 of 16, (3x4; 1x6), struck a few runs down the order, but it wasn’t nearly enough as they ended on 195-9.
Malinga was by far the pick of the Sunrisers bowlers with 4-32 in his four overs, while Hussain impressed with 1-29, and Harsh Dubey picked up three wickets in the last over for top figures of 3-12.
A momentum-shifting spell 🫡
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 21, 2026
Eshan Malinga finishes with his best bowling figures in #TATAIPL đź‘Ź
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SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (capt), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora (wk), Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivang Kumar, Harsh Dubey, Sakib Hussain, Eshan Malinga.
Impact subs: R Smaran, Praful Hinge, Liam Livingstone, Dilshan Madushanka, Harshal Patel.
DELHI CAPITALS: Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul (wkt), Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel (capt), David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Nitish Rana, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar.
Impact subs: Tripurana Vijay, Ashutosh Sharma, Karun Nair, Dushmantha Chameera, Auqib Nabi.