In IPL 2018, Sunrisers Hyderabad bowled out Mumbai Indians for 87 at the Wankhede on 24 April after making only 118 themselves. It was the lowest total successfully defended all season, and it was not a one-off: of the five lowest totals any side defended in 2018, four belonged to Hyderabad — 118, 132, 146 and 151. A team that never once looked like the best batting side in the tournament finished top of the league table.
That is the story of 2018 for SRH. The franchise lost its captain six days before the season, rebuilt itself around Kane Williamson's calm and an attack led by Rashid Khan, and won nine of its fourteen league games by out-bowling everyone. They reached the final on 27 May 2018 and lost it to Chennai Super Kings and a Shane Watson century. Eight years later the season still reads as the clearest proof that a T20 side can win from below par, repeatedly, if the bowling is deep enough.
How Sunrisers Hyderabad built the 2018 season around defence
A captain lost, a captain found
In March 2018, Cricket Australia banned David Warner for twelve months after the ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town, and he was ruled out of IPL 2018. Warner had captained SRH to the 2016 title and had been their leading run-scorer every season since joining in 2014. The franchise handed the captaincy to Williamson, who had been in and out of the XI in 2016 and 2017 because of the overseas quota.
The change of captain changed the team's style. Warner's SRH had batted aggressively from the first ball. Williamson's 2018 side batted to a total it trusted its bowlers to defend, then set fields with unusual patience. The batting, bar Williamson and Shikhar Dhawan, was modest: Manish Pandey made 284 runs at a strike rate of 115.4, Yusuf Pathan 260 at 130.0 and Shakib Al Hasan 239 at 121.3. In April 2018 nobody would have picked this middle order as a title side.
The bowling unit that made it work
What SRH had was five bowlers who could each bowl four overs to a plan. Rashid Khan, then 19, bowled 68 overs for 21 wickets at an economy of 6.74. Siddarth Kaul also took 21, sharing the new ball and the death overs. Shakib took 14 and bowled his left-arm spin through the middle overs. Sandeep Sharma took 12 at 7.57, opening with swing. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who missed games through injury, still went at only 7.67 an over.
The balance mattered more than any one name. Rashid and Shakib gave Williamson eight overs of spin; Sandeep, Kaul and Bhuvneshwar covered the new ball and the last five overs; and Billy Stanlake, Basil Thampi and Carlos Brathwaite came in when someone was injured or the conditions called for it. No other franchise in 2018 had that many bowlers they could use in any phase.
Three nights that defined the method
24 April 2018, Wankhede — SRH 118 all out beat MI by 31 runs. Hyderabad were bowled out in the 19th over, with Williamson and Pathan top-scoring on 29 each. Mumbai then lost all ten wickets for 87. Kaul took 3 for 23, Rashid 2 for 11 from four overs, Sandeep 1 for 9 from three, and Thampi 2 for 4 from under two overs. Only Suryakumar Yadav (34) and Krunal Pandya (24) reached double figures.
26 April 2018, Hyderabad — SRH 132/6 beat Kings XI Punjab by 13 runs. Two days later they did it again. Kings XI Punjab, who had KL Rahul and Chris Gayle in form, were bowled out for 119. Rashid took 3 for 19, and Sandeep, Shakib and Thampi took two wickets each.
7 May 2018, Hyderabad — SRH 146 all out beat RCB by 5 runs. Williamson made 56, and then a Royal Challengers Bangalore side with Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers managed only 141/6 chasing 147. Shakib took 2 for 36, and Sandeep, Bhuvneshwar, Kaul and Rashid one each, all five bowlers finishing their overs.
In between came 151/7 defended against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur on 29 April 2018, with Williamson making 63. Four wins in fourteen days, all from first-innings totals at or below 151.
The data behind the 2018 Sunrisers
Every team's bowling economy, IPL 2018
The table below uses all 60 matches of IPL 2018 (league and playoffs) from Cricsheet's ball-by-ball record. Hyderabad were the only side to concede under eight an over, and they were cheapest in all three phases.
| Team | Overall econ | Powerplay (1–6) | Middle (7–15) | Death (16–20) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | 7.99 | 7.72 | 7.70 | 8.92 |
| Mumbai Indians | 8.32 | 8.23 | 7.74 | 9.58 |
| Rajasthan Royals | 8.60 | 8.58 | 8.21 | 9.48 |
| Chennai Super Kings | 8.72 | 7.92 | 8.05 | 11.03 |
| Kings XI Punjab | 8.75 | 8.08 | 8.34 | 10.42 |
| Royal Challengers Bangalore | 8.82 | 8.05 | 7.88 | 11.87 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 9.04 | 9.26 | 8.22 | 10.42 |
| Delhi Daredevils | 9.05 | 9.63 | 8.42 | 9.54 |
The death-overs column shows the biggest gap. SRH conceded 8.92 an over from the 16th onwards. Chennai, who won the title, conceded 11.03, and RCB nearly 12. In a format where totals are decided in the last five overs, Hyderabad gave away roughly two runs an over fewer than most of the league.
The lowest totals defended in IPL 2018
| Total | Team | Opponent | Margin | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 118 all out | Sunrisers Hyderabad | Mumbai Indians | 31 runs | 24 Apr 2018 |
| 132/6 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | Kings XI Punjab | 13 runs | 26 Apr 2018 |
| 143/8 | Kings XI Punjab | Delhi Daredevils | 4 runs | 23 Apr 2018 |
| 146 all out | Sunrisers Hyderabad | Royal Challengers Bangalore | 5 runs | 7 May 2018 |
| 151/7 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | Rajasthan Royals | 11 runs | 29 Apr 2018 |
Ignoring the rain-reduced RR v Delhi game of 11 April 2018, no other team defended anything below 158 all season.
The batting: Williamson and Dhawan
| Batter | Inns | Runs | SR | 50s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kane Williamson | 17 | 735 | 142.4 | 8 | 28 |
| Shikhar Dhawan | 16 | 497 | 136.9 | 4 | 14 |
| Manish Pandey | 13 | 284 | 115.4 | — | 5 |
| Yusuf Pathan | 13 | 260 | 130.0 | — | 11 |
| Shakib Al Hasan | 13 | 239 | 121.3 | — | 5 |
Williamson won the Orange Cap with 735 runs at an average of 52.50, ahead of Rishabh Pant (684) and KL Rahul (659). He was out only 14 times in 17 innings and passed fifty eight times: 50 against KKR, 54 against Punjab, 84 against CSK, 63 against RR, 56 against RCB, 83 not out against Delhi, 51 against CSK and 81 against RCB. Against Delhi on 10 May 2018 he and Dhawan (92 not out) chased 188 together for the loss of one wicket. Behind them, the batting got SRH to par but rarely beyond it.
The 2018 wicket-takers
| Bowler | Team | Wkts | Overs | Econ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Tye | Kings XI Punjab | 24 | 56.0 | 8.00 |
| Rashid Khan | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 21 | 68.0 | 6.74 |
| Siddarth Kaul | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 21 | 66.0 | 8.29 |
| Umesh Yadav | Royal Challengers Bangalore | 20 | 53.1 | 7.86 |
| Jasprit Bumrah | Mumbai Indians | 17 | 54.0 | 6.89 |
Tye took the Purple Cap, but Hyderabad had two of the top three wicket-takers. Rashid's economy of 6.74 from 68 overs was the best of any bowler with more than 50 overs in 2018. Of his 408 legal deliveries, 162 were dot balls, a little under 40%.
From the top of the table to the final
Nine wins and a nervy finish
SRH won six of their first eight games, including the last-ball win over Mumbai on 12 April 2018, when Stanlake, the number eleven, hit the final delivery for four to finish on 151/9 chasing 148. They then won three more in a row between 5 and 10 May. They then lost their last three league games to CSK, RCB and KKR, but nine wins and 18 points were enough. Chennai also finished on 18 points, and Hyderabad topped the table on net run rate.
Qualifier 1 and Qualifier 2
In Qualifier 1 at the Wankhede on 22 May 2018, SRH made 139/7 and nearly defended it. Rashid took 2 for 11 from his four overs, and Sandeep and Kaul two wickets each. Faf du Plessis's unbeaten 67 off 42 balls got CSK home by two wickets with five balls left.
Qualifier 2 at Eden Gardens on 25 May 2018 was Rashid's night. He made 34 not out off 10 balls to lift SRH to 174/7, then took 3 for 19 as Kolkata finished on 160/9. Hyderabad were in the final, beating KKR by 14 runs.
The final: when the method met Watson
On 27 May 2018 at the Wankhede, SRH made 178/6. Williamson (47 off 36) and Pathan (45 off 25) built the total, and Brathwaite hit three sixes in 21 off 11 balls at the end. On the evidence of the season, 178 should have been plenty.
It wasn't. Watson made 117 not out off 57 balls, with 11 fours and 8 sixes, and Chennai won by eight wickets with nine balls left. Bhuvneshwar bowled four overs for 17. Rashid, so often unplayable, went for 24 without a wicket. The other bowlers conceded 137 runs from 63 balls. The one batting performance SRH's attack could not absorb came on the night that mattered most.
Legacy impact — what 2018 means for Sunrisers Hyderabad today
The 2018 Sunrisers set a template the franchise followed for several years: bowling depth first, with batting meant to get to a defendable total. SRH also reached the playoffs in 2019 and 2020 with much the same thinking, built on Rashid, Bhuvneshwar and Williamson.
The modern SRH is close to the opposite. Under Pat Cummins, the 2024 side built its identity on batting: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen posted 287/3 against RCB and 277/3 against Mumbai and took the franchise to a final. The 2026 side again finished on 18 points, the same as Williamson's 2018 team, but went out in the Eliminator, beaten by Rajasthan Royals by 47 runs. Where 2018 SRH won with 118, the modern franchise usually wins with 250.
The 2018 numbers are a useful reminder of what totals can be defended. In 2018, Hyderabad won four times defending 151 or less. That only works with five bowlers who can each bowl four good overs, and few sides have had that since. Several of the 2018 bowlers are still in the league: Rashid at Gujarat Titans, Bhuvneshwar at RCB and Sandeep Sharma at Rajasthan.
Seasons like 2018 are why CricMind's Oracle does not judge a team on batting strength alone. The model rates every side from its full match history, so a team whose bowling keeps beating par gets credit for it, and every call is locked before the first ball and graded publicly against the result. On a model built only on batting, the 2018 Sunrisers would have been rated below the side that topped the table.
Three takeaways
- Bowling depth won SRH the league in 2018. Hyderabad conceded 7.99 an over across the season, the only side under eight, and were the cheapest team in the powerplay, the middle overs and at the death.
- Williamson's 735 runs held up an ordinary batting order. Eight fifties and an average of 52.50 won him the Orange Cap. Behind him and Dhawan, no SRH batter reached 300 runs.
- The method had a ceiling. It beat MI with 118 and RCB with 146, but on 27 May 2018 one great innings from Shane Watson turned 178 into a losing total.
FAQ
Who captained Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2018?
Kane Williamson. He took over after David Warner was banned by Cricket Australia following the March 2018 ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town and was ruled out of the IPL.
Who won the Orange Cap in IPL 2018?
Kane Williamson, with 735 runs in 17 innings at an average of 52.50 and a strike rate of 142.4, including eight fifties. Rishabh Pant (684) and KL Rahul (659) finished second and third.
What was the lowest total defended in IPL 2018?
118, by Sunrisers Hyderabad against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede on 24 April 2018. MI were bowled out for 87 and SRH won by 31 runs. Siddarth Kaul took 3 for 23 and Rashid Khan 2 for 11.
Did Sunrisers Hyderabad top the IPL 2018 points table?
Yes. SRH won nine of their 14 league matches and finished on 18 points, level with Chennai Super Kings, and finished first on net run rate.
Who won the IPL 2018 final?
Chennai Super Kings beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by eight wickets at the Wankhede on 27 May 2018. Shane Watson made 117 not out off 57 balls as CSK chased 179 with nine balls to spare, in their first season back after a two-year suspension.
How many wickets did Rashid Khan take in IPL 2018?
21 wickets in 68 overs at an economy of 6.74, joint second in the season with teammate Siddarth Kaul behind Andrew Tye's 24. About 40% of his legal deliveries were dot balls.
Which SRH players from 2018 are still in the IPL?
Rashid Khan (Gujarat Titans), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Royal Challengers Bengaluru), Sandeep Sharma (Rajasthan Royals) and Manish Pandey (Kolkata Knight Riders) all appear in 2026 IPL squads.