RCB Vs SRH, IPL 2026: Ishan Kishan Punishes Debutant Abhinandan Singh, Counters Pressure Of Early Collapse

Ishan Kishan punished debutant Abhinandan Singh with a flurry of boundaries in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 opener between defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, on Saturday (March 28, 2026).

Asked to set a target after losing the toss, the visiting SunRisers lost openers Abhishek Sharma (7 off 8) and Travis Head (11 off 9), and promoted Nitish Kumar Reddy (1 off 6) inside the power play -- all three falling to Jacob Duffy.

But Kishan, captaining an IPL side for the first time, kept the RCB attack at bay with a measured knock. The 27-year-old had already stitched a fourth-wicket stand worth more than 50 runs (58 off 34) with Heinrich Klaasen.

And the defining passage in his knock, as we filed the story, came in the XX over when the left-handed hit Abhinandan for 6,4,6 off successive deliveries. The right-arm pacer, in his bid to emulate Duffy's Test match length, ended up spraying his deliveries and ended up getting punished by one of the best hitters in world cricket today.

Abhinandan leaked 16 runs from his IPL over.

Eventually, Ishan Kishan brought up his fifty in just 27 deliveries. He is leading SRH with regular skipper Pat Cummins continuing to recover.

RCB Vs SRH, IPL 2026: Playing XIs

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhinandan Singh, Jacob Duffy, Suyash Sharma

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan(w/c), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Salil Arora, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga