Sunrisers Hyderabad were handed a humiliating defeat by the Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 on Tuesday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. SRH looked on track after keeping GT to 168/5, but the follow-up innings turned into a fast-bowling masterclass as Gujarat’s pace attack dismantled the chase. Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada and the Titans’ other quicks produced sharp spells to restrict Hyderabad to only 86 runs in 14.5 overs.
Despite the lopsided result, SRH head coach Daniel Vettori believes there is no pressing need for the franchise to rethink its overall approach. In his assessment, the chase was always going to be challenging given the kind of bowling unit Gujarat brought to the table, and he pointed out that early wickets—more than any tactical flaw—decided the contest’s course.
With the target not overly demanding, SRH’s openers, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, attempted to begin aggressively. However, that intent did not last long as both batters were dismissed within the opening overs. The damage was compounded in the powerplay, where SRH slipped to 4 down for 32 runs.
“We always want to get off to a good start, that’s our MO through the power play,” Vettori said during the press conference. “Today, even though they bowled exceptionally well, there were a couple of unfortunate dismissals for the first two, and then from there it was tough to really regroup as they just keep putting pressure on. We knew coming up against their bowling line-up, and the fact that they had five seamers plus Rashid, was always going to be a challenge. We didn’t get the start we wanted, and they were able to capitalise the whole way through. It was a really good bowling performance; we saw a hostile spell by Rabada and Siraj to start up, and then Jason Holder was exceptional with his lengths tonight.”
Hyderabad also made a change to their batting order in response to the early collapses. They delayed the arrival of Heinrich Klaasen, who typically plays at No. 4, and instead sent him in at No. 6 after Abhishek and Head had departed. Along with Klaasen, Smaran Ravichandran and Salil Arora were elevated above him in the batting lineup. Vettori said the reshuffle was a direct reaction to the top-order failing to build partnerships early.
“When it’s 23 for 3, the fact that we sent Smaran in, we knew that we wanted to push Klaasen back a little bit to have more of an opportunity through those middle stages. Sometimes you have to sit back and say it was a really good bowling performance and when you’re put in that situation, you sometimes make mistakes,” Vettori added.
He also defended the batting group’s larger body of work across the season. “I don’t put any blame on the batting unit; they’ve been exceptional this year. Every team throughout the IPL is going to have their small blips once in a while and ours was tonight, but I don’t see any reason why they won’t bounce back,” he said.
