Klaasen and Abhishek lead Orange Cap race at IPL 2026
Ishan Kishan, Cooper Connolly and Eshan Malinga also moved up the ladder after SRH beat PBKS by 33 runs in IPL 2026 on Wednesday night
ESPNcricinfo staff
Published: May 7, 2026, 1:38 AM (2 hrs ago)
Another high-scoring game – 235 plays 202 – in IPL 2026, and, therefore, another change at the top of the Orange Cap table, to go with more pressure on the top two on the Purple Cap table. Here’s how things stand after Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) rose to the top of the points table with a convincing 33-run win over Punjab Kings (PBKS).
Heinrich Klaasen has barely put a foot wrong this season. Sure, he was slow off the blocks, scoring runs but not getting them quickly, but a strike rate of 157.32 after 11 innings, not to forget the 494 runs, shows you why he is such a crucial cog in the SRH wheel. And also how a No. 4 batter can score lots of runs even when the men before him are doing all the glamour stuff.
Klaasen hit 69, his fifth half-century of the season, against PBKS to get to the top spot on the run-getters’ table, and Abhishek Sharma – the two of them have been in the top three pretty much all season – chipped in with a 13-ball 35 to stay at No. 2 with 475 runs, both batters playing their parts to perfection again for SRH on the night.
As did Ishan Kishan, the SRH No. 3, who slammed 55 in 32 balls to get to 409 runs, and the fourth spot, one behind KL Rahul, the Delhi Capitals (DC) opener, who had a failure the day before, but is still at No. 3 with 445 runs. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi of Rajasthan Royals (RR), with 404 runs, and Sanju Samson of Chennai Super Kings (CSK), with 402 runs, are the others to have crossed 400 for the season.
Cooper Connolly, meanwhile, kept up his good work for PBKS, scoring a 59-ball 107 not out – another century in IPL 2026 that didn’t go in a win – to get to No. 11 with 377 runs.
The names in the top five on the wicket-takers’ table remained unchanged following Wednesday’s result, but Eshan Malinga, who has been leading the SRH bowling, got to within one strike of the leaders with the wicket of PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer.
Malinga currently has 16 wickets, the same as Kagiso Rabada of Gujarat Titans (GT), but at a slightly poorer economy rate: 9.44 to 9.23.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Royal Challengers Bengaluru, 17 wickets) is still on top, followed by Anshul Kamboj, the CSK man also on 17 wickets after going wicketless against DC, the two separated only by economy rates.
RR’s Jofra Archer completes the top five – he has 15 wickets at this stage.
