The poor fielding virus showed its symptoms late in the game against Lucknow Super Giants, when Shashank Singh dropped three catches. The result was all but decided that night in Mullanpur, and Iyer could see the funny side of it, but here, when Shashank dropped Klaasen on nine, the Punjab skipper’s expression was not as happy. With the rich vein of form Klaasen has shown this tournament, he made it count.

Klaasen did what he has been doing for SRH this season: walking in during the middle overs and laying the foundation for the final overs. Klaasen played second fiddle when Ishan Kishan was batting, though he showed power-hitting whenever the ball was in his arc. Ishan scored a half-century, but he himself had a charmed life throughout at the crease, where he was dropped twice. When he was nine, Cooper Connolly spilt one at mid-wicket, when he was 18, Lockie Ferguson missed a chance at square-leg, and on 20, wicket-keeper Prabhsimran Singh missed the stumping chance. Both Klaasen and Ishan put up 88 runs in the middle overs. The duo’s power-hitting quality was as ballistic as always.

AS IT HAPPENED | SUNRISERS HYDERABAD VS PUNJAB KINGS IPL 2026 HIGHLIGHTS

To the Punjab Kings’ credit, they devised shrewd plans to counter SRH’s batting. They did what the SRH bowlers have been doing on this surface this season: digging the ball into the surface and taking the pace off. However, they received no help from their fielders. Vijaykumar Vyshak took a severe beating from the Kishan-Klaasen partnership during the middle overs. By the time he came into the attack, batters were aware of what to expect and started to set up.

After scoring a half-century, Ishan hit one through mid-wicket; ironically enough, Suryansh Shedge at deep mid-wicket took a catch this time. Klaasen fell on the final delivery when Marco Jansen took an unusually low, bent catch at long off for a ball that went high in the air.

Fielding to the forefront

Although the Kings had the intentions and plans in place, their execution failed, which is where the Sunrisers got their two points. In the first over, Pat Cummins dug one into the wicket, and Priyansh Arya made an error. The pull shot did not come off, and Eshan Malinga took a superb running catch at square-leg. Nitish came into the attack looking for swing and pitched the ball up. Prabhsimran Singh tried to close the bat face early, but the ball took the leading edge. Cummins, fielding at mid-off, took a lovely catch while running backwards, using a reverse cupped-hand position.

Shreyas Iyer, who has often saved the day for Punjab Kings in high-scoring chases, perished in the powerplay. His counterpart, Cummins, took the catch at mid-off when Iyer mis-hit a delivery from Malinga. Losing three wickets in the powerplay, Punjab was hampered in the chase. They had to maintain the gruelling balance of keeping the tempo without losing any more wickets. Marcus Stoinis and Cooper Connolly partnered, stopped the fall of wickets and also counter-attacked quite bravely before on-field brilliance undid Stoinis. Shivang Kumar delivered one wide. Stoinis slashed at it as hard as he could, but keeper Ishan’s quick reflexes secured the catch on the second attempt. Connolly found another ally in Shedge. They built 47 runs from 30 deliveries, and Cummins brought himself back into the attack to break the partnership, deploying the pitch’s most efficient weapon: a slow bumper.

By the halfway mark of the chase, Punjab needed 145 runs from the next 10 overs. This fell exactly into SRH’s bowling template. The ball was oldish and reversing a bit. Malinga and Sakib Hussain, knew the drill that works here in Uppal. The bowlers kept pressuring the Punjab batters. But Connolly continued on his merry way. While the other Punjab batters struggled with the sluggish pitch, Connolly, who plays on bouncy Western Australia pitches, has an ideal backfoot game suited for this pitch. Weighting on the back foot, he had answers for all the variations SRH offered and fought the lone battle for Punjab.

Brief scores: SRH 235/4 in 20 ovs (Klaasen 69, Ishan 55, Head 38) beat Punjab Kings 202/7 in 20 ovs (Connolly 107 n.o; Cummins 2-34).