Mohammed Shami made the game simple in his first two overs. Rishabh Pant made sure it stayed won in the final one.
Lucknow Super Giants claimed their first win of IPL 2026 on Sunday in Hyderabad, beating Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets with one ball to spare in a match that had no business being as close as it was.
Image Source: The Daily Star
Shami was the story early. Bowling with his trademark control and late movement, he removed Abhishek Sharma for a duck off the last ball of the first over and had Travis Head caught at mid-off from the very first ball of his second. Two of SRH’s most destructive top-order batters gone in successive deliveries. The hosts were 26 for 4 before they had even settled.
Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy responded in the way they have done before, putting on 116 together and giving SRH a genuine fighting total to defend. Klaasen top-scored with 62 and Reddy hit 56 off 33 balls. Without that stand, the game would have been over long before the final over arrived. But it meant LSG needed 157, and for long stretches of the chase, that looked straightforward enough.
Then the wobbles came. Ayush Badoni was stumped for 12. Nicholas Pooran was run out for one. The game tightened with every over. Nine needed off the last over, bowled by Jaydev Unadkat, with Pant at the crease.
The LSG captain hit three fours, including the winning boundary, to seal it. An unbeaten 68 that will be remembered not for its style but for its nerve.
For Shami, the performance was a reminder of what he still brings at 35. He last played for India in the 2025 Champions Trophy final in Dubai and has since been overlooked by national selectors despite bowling exactly like this. Figures of 2 for 9 in conditions that rewarded patience and precision made the point better than any press conference could.
