Sunrisers Hyderabad VS Rajasthan Royals Match ball by ball Commentary

One more hurdle - We are nearing the Grand Finale of the 2026 IPL season, but there's one more game that stands in between. Rajasthan Royals were the final team to qualify, that too on the last day of the league stage, but now they are one win away from heading to the Final. The Royals will now take on a bruised Gujarat Titans side, which will be eager to get back to its best. RR will have a slight edge, as Qualifier 2 will be played right here in New Chandigarh, and they will also have the confidence of a win behind them, but the Titans will have the edge of being well-rested, so there's not much to differentiate the two teams after all. Qualifier 2 will be played on Friday, 29 May, and will begin at 7.30 pm IST (2 pm GMT), but you can join us for the build-up well in advance. Cheers!

POTM - Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is given the award for his scintillating knock of 97 off just 29 balls. He says that they have won the match and will carry that positive intent into the next game. On his own knocks, he says that he doesn't think much about it, but if there's something to work on, he tries to do that. On what his pre-match preparation is like, he says that he just tries to focus on lining up the opposition bowlers and how he can put them away. Adds that he tries to keep his intent up when he's dominating. On missing out on his hundred, he says that he realised only after getting out and wasn't focused on anything other than doing the best for his team.

The skipper of the Rajasthan Royals - Riyan Parag says it was a really good game of cricket overall, but admits that as a perfectionist, he felt RR should probably have pushed closer to 260 after the position they were in. Adds that finishing off the innings better is still an area they need to work on. Parag shares that there are hardly any conversations around Vaibhav Sooryavanshi within the group because they simply prefer leaving him alone to do his thing. Adds that RR give him plenty of batting practice, and beyond that, they just let the youngster play his natural game. Riyan feels everyone in the RR camp has stepped up even more over these last two games. On Jofra Archer, Parag says the banter with him never really stops and calls him one of the best, if not the best, T20 bowlers in the world. Looking ahead to facing the Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 2, Parag says the immediate focus is simply on recovery and rest.

The Presentation ceremony...

Sooryavanshi storm sets the game ablaze - Earlier in the day, Pat Cummins put Rajasthan Royals into bat, and it backfired badly. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi seemed on top of his game and just took the SRH bowling attack to the cleaners. Sooryavanshi ended just 3 shy of what could have been the fastest IPL century, when Praful Hinge got him caught at deep third. Hinge took three wickets in total, but everyone else just couldn't conjure up any wicket-taking opportunities until the death overs. Dhruv Jurel hit his 6th half-century of the season, but towards the end, the Royals lost a lot of steam, losing wickets for fun and fell short of the 250-run mark, which seemed like a formality. However, it turned out to be more than enough at the end of the day.

Let's now hear from RR's premier pacer - Jofra Archer says that apart from the figures, he feels he bowled alright, and not just him, but all the guys bowled well. He adds that usually the team that gets the most wickets in the Powerplay wins the game, and feels that you just have to hang in there, because even your good balls will go for boundaries. On Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, he says it was exciting to watch, and the more runs he gets, the better it is for the bowlers. Jofra then jokes about bowling to him in the nets and says that he will tell everyone where he bowls to him after the season ends. Ends by saying that in a long season, things do get a bit up and down. It happened to them and also the Punjab Kings, but everyone just needs to keep chipping.

Pat Cummins reflects on SRH's season - The SRH skipper praises Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for the way he batted and feels that they did not have too many options on a surface like this, where the margins were extremely small. Mentions that a lot of things needed to go right for them in a chase of this nature, but losing a couple of wickets at the wrong time made the task far too difficult in the end. Pat opines that they were a well-rounded side and praises Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain for the way they performed in their maiden season. Cummins also reflects on how close SRH were to finishing in the top two during the league stage and says, despite tonight's loss, he could not have asked for much more from the boys this season.

To live and die by the sword - That's probably SRH's motto, but they will be disappointed to not take things closer, especially after how they pulled things back with the ball. Abhishek Sharma was undone by a searing bumper, and Head's underwhelming season continued. Ishan Kishan played a fiery cameo, but when Heinrich Klaasen got out, all hope seemed lost. Nitish Kumar Reddy fought valiantly, and so did Salil Arora, as they hit a couple of 30s, but it was never going to be enough. Shivang Kumar had a bit of fun as he took down Archer for a plethora of boundaries to bring down the margin of loss under 50 runs, but it was still a hefty defeat.

Archer's carnage at the top - Jofra Archer was the reason Rajasthan managed to even qualify for the playoffs on the final day of league action, and again, he took a wicket in the very first over to set the tone. He got rid of all of Hyderabad's top three left-handers and killed the game. He even took as many as three catches to go along with it, but he went for plenty of runs too. Apart from Archer, Yash Punja made a big contribution with the ball, getting the prized wicket of Heinrich Klaasen, and Ravindra Jadeja then came in and picked up a couple of wickets too. Nandre Burger also got a couple of wickets and was highly economical as well.

Two blowouts in a row - Back-to-back days, we have seen teams being put into bat and winning. Big scores on the board in a knockout clash, and the opposition starts to crumble when those early wickets fall. Sunrisers Hyderabad are known to be a fearless side, but their 2026 IPL campaign ends here, and they will finish as the fourth-best team of the season.