Pat Cummins Got A Handshake. Abhishek Sharma Got A Handshake. Travis Head Got Nothing. And The Whole World Saw It.

 

The match was over. SRH had won by 55 runs. The two teams lined up at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium for the customary post-match handshakes — that brief, professional ritual that professional cricketers perform after every game, regardless of what happened in the eighty overs before it.

Virat Kohli walked down the line. He shook hands with Pat Cummins — the SRH captain who had just watched his team beat RCB convincingly. He shook hands with Abhishek Sharma. He looked ahead and kept walking. Travis Head had his arm outstretched, waiting. Kohli walked straight past him without making eye contact.

The cameras caught every frame of it.

By the time the post-match presentation had finished, the clip was everywhere. On X. On Instagram. On WhatsApp groups across India, Pakistan, Australia — anywhere cricket is watched and discussed. Two of the most recognisable faces in world cricket, in the middle of an IPL playoff week, in a moment that told a story without a single word being spoken.

But to understand what that handshake refusal meant, you have to go back to what happened during the match itself. Because this did not start after the final whistle. It started in the middle of the sixteenth over of RCB's chase — and once it started, it was never going to end quietly.

He Scored 123. He Broke Records That Hadn't Been Touched Since 2008. Mumbai Indians Still Lost.

Ryan Rickelton walked to the crease at the Wankhede last night with something to prove.

He had started IPL 2026 with a blazing 81 against KKR. Then came three single-digit scores in four games. Then Quinton de Kock's century pushed him completely out of the playing eleven. Then de Kock got injured — and Rickelton got one more chance.

He responded with 123 not out off 55 balls.

The highest score ever made by a Mumbai Indians batter in IPL history. Faster than anything Rohit Sharma ever made in blue. Faster than what Sanath Jayasuriya did at this very ground in 2008, a record that had stood untouched for eighteen years.

And Mumbai Indians still lost.

By six wickets. With eight balls to spare. At their own home ground. Chasing 244 — a total that should have been impossible — Sunrisers Hyderabad made it look like a training session.

That is where Mumbai Indians are right now. That is what this IPL 2026 season has become for the five-time champions.

The Innings That Should Have Won The Match

The pitch at Wankhede was flat. Both teams knew it. Hardik Pandya won the toss and decided — for the first time in 22 home games — to bat first. The logic was clear: put up a number so big that even SRH's batting order would have to sweat for it.

What followed in the first innings was one of the great individual performances of IPL 2026.

Rickelton and Will Jacks came out swinging. Jacks launched Harsh Dubey for 16 runs in the fifth over. Rickelton replied by taking Sakib Hussain for 17 in the very next one. By the end of the powerplay, MI had already raced to 78 for 0 — one of the fastest powerplay starts of the season.

Jacks fell for 46 off 22 balls. Suryakumar Yadav lasted four balls — his lean patch in IPL 2026 deepening by the match. But Rickelton kept going. Through the middle overs, through the death overs, through everything SRH threw at him. He reached his fifty off just 23 balls. His century came in 44 — the fastest ever by any Mumbai Indians batter in IPL history.

He finished on 123 not out off 55 balls. Ten fours. Eight sixes. A strike rate of 223.6. He had broken Jayasuriya's eighteen-year-old record for MI's highest individual score. He had taken MI to 243 for 5 — their highest first-innings total in IPL history.

It was not enough.

What SRH Did To 244 Was Not Normal

When the second innings began, MI's win probability was sitting at 77.6 percent. They had 244 to defend. At Wankhede. With Jasprit Bumrah in their attack.

Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma did not care about any of that.

Head rode his luck early — he edged Boult to the keeper in the third over and nobody appealed. He was dropped twice. In between, he smashed everything in sight. Abhishek launched a six off Bumrah in the first over. Head then took three sixes off Boult in a single passage of play. Will Jacks conceded 19 in one over as both openers took him apart.

By the end of the powerplay, SRH had scored 92 runs. Not 92 for 0 — 92 runs in six overs. The required rate had already dropped below 10. Bumrah had gone for 28 in his first two overs. Boult had gone for 29. The dew had settled on the outfield and MI's bowlers had no answers.

Head finished with 76 off 30 balls. Abhishek added 45 off 24. Together they had put on 129 runs for the opening wicket in just 8.4 overs.

For one brief moment, MI came back. Ghazanfar took two wickets in two balls — Abhishek caught at backward point, Ishan Kishan bowled first ball. Hardik then removed Head. Three wickets down in a matter of overs. SRH 145 for 3. The crowd found its voice. MI had a chance.

Then Heinrich Klaasen walked in.

The Man MI Had No Answer For

Klaasen is not a man who panics. He looked around, assessed the field, and started hitting.

He took Ghazanfar for a four and a six in his first over facing him. He then crashed four consecutive boundaries off Ashwani Kumar to bring the required rate below nine. When Bumrah came back for his final spell — MI's last genuine threat, their biggest weapon — Klaasen hit him over extra cover for six. Then he took 19 more runs off Ghazanfar's next over.

His fifty came off 22 balls. He finished on 65 not out off 30. The required rate had long since become irrelevant. Salil Arora came in and hit Bumrah for a no-look straight six. SRH crossed the line with eight balls to spare.

Bumrah's final figures: four overs, 54 runs, zero wickets. The best bowler in the world had been taken apart on his home ground. Boult conceded 41. The bowling attack that MI had built around one extraordinary individual had been exposed — again — for having very little behind him.

SRH had chased 244 at Wankhede. The highest successful run-chase in IPL history at this ground. Their fifth consecutive win. Third on the points table and climbing.

What This Means For Mumbai Indians

Three wins from nine matches. Eighth on the table. Net run rate of -0.736.

MI are not just losing matches. They are losing them in ways that suggest something structural is broken. Their batting, without Rickelton firing, collapses — SKY has not found form all season, Tilak Varma contributed just 7 last night, and the middle order has been a revolving door of short cameos and early dismissals.

Their bowling is almost entirely dependent on Bumrah. When he goes for runs — as he did last night, conceding 54 — there is nobody to pick up the slack. Boult is expensive. Chahar has been wayward. And the decision to bring in Shardul Thakur as the Impact Player and then not use him at all is the kind of baffling captaincy call that has defined this MI season.

Rickelton's 123 deserved to win a match. On any other night in any other IPL season, it would have. But this is IPL 2026, where 244 gets chased down like a Sunday afternoon net session, and where the five-time champions are running out of time to fix what is broken.

The playoffs need MI to win six of their remaining five games. That is not a typo — it means net run rate matters as much as wins now. Every match from here is a must-win, and the margin for error is already gone.

What Happens Next

Tonight, the attention shifts to Ahmedabad, where Gujarat Titans host Royal Challengers Bengaluru. The same SRH whose batting destroyed MI last night made headlines just days earlier when Abhishek Sharma rewrote Chris Gayle's IPL records — and now they have done it again on a different stage.

For MI, the schedule offers no rest. Delhi Capitals next. Then Rajasthan Royals. Both teams in the top six. Both playing with momentum. And MI — carrying the weight of last night's loss, the burden of an entire season going wrong, and a bowling attack that gave 54 to Bumrah — will have to find answers that have not come all season.

Ryan Rickelton gave everything he had last night. He scored 123 not out. He broke records that had stood since 2008. He carried his team to their highest-ever first-innings total.

And still, it was not enough.

That tells you everything you need to know about where Mumbai Indians are right now — and how much trouble they are in.

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Follow The Yorker Crew for IPL 2026 coverage every day — the stories behind the scores.

📌 Also Read:

• 264 Wasn't Enough. KL Rahul Scored 152 And Still Lost. The Most Insane IPL Match Ever Played.
• The Man Hitting Sixes That Chris Gayle Never Could — Abhishek Sharma Is Rewriting IPL History
• A Farmer Sold His Land So His Son Could Play Cricket. Now That Son Is The Most Feared Batter In IPL 2026.
• 67 Innings. 2 Years of Criticism. One Night in Karachi That Changed Everything — Babar Azam Is Back.

The Man Hitting Sixes That Chris Gayle Never Could — Abhishek Sharma Is Rewriting IPL History One Innings At A Time

 

There is a certain kind of batter that does not get the credit they deserve until it is almost too late to give it. The kind who quietly piles up runs, breaks records, rewrites history — and somehow still gets overlooked in the conversation about who the best players in the world actually are.

Abhishek Sharma is that batter. And after what he did to Delhi Capitals on April 21, 2026, it is time to stop overlooking him.

135 not out. 68 balls. 10 fours. 10 sixes. A record that had belonged to Chris Gayle — one of the most destructive batters the game has ever produced — gone. Just like that. By a 26-year-old from Amritsar who bats like he has absolutely nothing to fear.