Chennai Super Kings may have lost by 10 points to Sunrisers Hyderabad, but the defeat still worked in their favor as they moved up one spot in the IPL standings.SRH successfully defended 194 with Eshan Malinga (3/29) leading a disciplined bowling and Shivang Kumar (1/18) providing crucial support. Although CSK were in a good position at one stage, they needed only 84 runs in the final 10 overs to finish with 184/8. Contributions from Matthew Short (34) and Shivam Dube (21) kept CSK in the chase, but SRH’s regular wickets and fierce death bowling ensured that the target remained out of reach.Earlier, SRH were at 194/9 with Abhishek Sharma smashing 59 off 22 balls and Heinrich Klaasen contributing 59 balls. CSK responded well through the delivery of Jamie Overton and Anshul Kamboj, who picked up three wickets each.How CSK keeps rising despite lossesBefore the match, CSK was ranked eighth with 4 points and a net run rate (NRR) of -0.846. Despite the defeat, the narrow margin significantly improved their NRR to -0.780. The improvement was enough for CSK to climb to seventh spot, ahead of Lucknow Supergiants, who also have 4 points but have a worse NRR of -0.804.In a hotly contested table, even defeat can have an impact and for CSK, this defeat brought a small but significant gain.Here is the updated points table after match 27 of the 2026 Indian Premier League:
