Watch: Jofra Archer dismisses Abhishek Sharma for first-ball duck during SRH vs RR clash in IPL 2026

The Rajasthan Royals (RR) came into the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 clash against the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on the back of their unbeaten campaign with four victories in as many encounters, as they enjoy their stay at the top of the points table.

Meanwhile, Sunrisers, apart from their only win against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), have struggled to get going due to their poor bowling and unplanned middle-order batting. The 2016 champions needed to lift themselves with a better performance to stay alive at the early stage of the event.

Abhishek Sharma dismissed for golden duck vs RR

In the previous fixture for Rajasthan against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Jofra Archer came charging in and bounced out the opponent opener, Phil Salt, with a short ball, as the opener had no idea how they could deal with the delivery. And the same scenario took place against the Sunrisers.

It was another short ball, this time against Abhishek Sharma, who had been throwing his wicket away in the quest to get going from the very first delivery. He advanced down the track to have a go at the England pacer. But he slashed it away from the body, and the thick outside edge went high in the air before Ravi Bishnoi completed the simple catch. 

Watch the video here: 

That was the second instance of an SRH batter being dismissed on the first delivery of the game, apart from Shikhar Dhawan’s dismissal during the IPL 2018 first qualifier in Mumbai against the Chennai Super Kings.

Abhishek’s early dismissal put enormous pressure on the side, which had found the power play the best suited to score runs so far in this competition. It was also his seventh duck in T20s this year, which was the most by an Indian, surpassing Rohit Sharma’s six ducks in 2018.

SRH continue onslaught despite losing early wicket

Having lost the first-ball wicket, the hosts could have easily gone into their shell and tried a few defensive shots during the first six overs. But their captain, Ishan Kishan, came with an aggressive approach and nailed the visiting bowlers around the park.

See Also: Mumbai Indians face injury scare as Rohit Sharma undergoes scan ahead of PBKS clash in IPL 2026

In the blink of an eye, the southpaw raced away to 30 runs in 18 balls with three sixes and one boundary. However, Travis Head struggled to put bat on the ball as he limped up to 11 runs in just 12 balls.

Brief Scores (at the time of writing): SRH- 62/2 (Ishan Kishan 40, Riyan Parag 1/5) vs RR

Fans react to Abhishek’s golden duck vs RR in IPL 2026

Here is how the fans have reacted to Abhishek’s golden duck against Archer during the IPL 2026 clash-