Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and India all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy put up a confident display with both the bat and the ball in the match against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) tonight (April 2) in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL 2026). In the process, he also won the Player of the Match Award for his heroics.
The dynamic right-hander first contributed with the bat with a crucial 39(24) before returning with the ball and picked up two wickets. For Nitish, the performance didn’t come easily, who had to ward off ‘negative thoughts’ after recuperating from multiple injuries over the past one year.
Echoing on the same lines, Nitish Kumar Reddy said during the post-match presentation ceremony of the KKR vs SRH game,
“It’s just I’m trying to be positive because there have been very… too many negative thoughts in my mind because the last season was not gone in my way and too many injuries. I didn’t bowl last season and I know I wanted to work on my bowling a bit and I got some break. But just before coming to IPL season, I really worked hard on my bowling and it’s really good and I worked really, really hard and it’s shown on the ground and really, really happy.”
Notably, Nitish Kumar Reddy could only bowl five overs in the previous IPL season since he had to manage his workload after coming into the tournament following a side strain. After that, during the England Test tour, he suffered a knee injury and was ruled out for the last two Tests.
The injury woes continued next during the Australia white-ball tour where he suffered a left quadriceps injury during the ODI leg and then missed out the T20Is due to neck problems. For Nitish, it has thus been a long road of recovery and determination to
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Speaking about the KKR vs SRH contest, Nitish’s POTM display ensured the Sunrisers won the contest by a big margin of 65 runs. After being put to bat first, the explosive SRH opening duo of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma registered a quickfire 82-run stand with both batters narrowly missing out on their fifties. Travis departed for 46(21) while Abhishek managed 48(21). Proteas wicketkeeper-batter Heinrich Klaasen then kept the momentum going with a 35-ball 52 before Nitish put the finishing touches to propel the SRH scoreboard to a massive 226/8 in 20 overs.
In response, KKR started the chase with impetus from Finn Allen and Ajinkya Rahane. However, the destructive Finn Allen failed to go big and departed on the second over for a lightning-quick cameo of 28 off 7. While Angkrish Raghuvanshi managed to keep KKR’s hopes alive for sometime with a 29-ball 52, the three-time champions kept losing wickets from the other end and was eventually bundled out for 161.
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