IPL 2025: Ishan Kishan and Pat Cummins dent RCB’s top-two hopes | Cricket News
Sunrisers Hyderabad took to the pitch on Friday knowing well that a win will not change their standing in the table. The game however, had the potential to help Royal Challengers Bengaluru solidify their claim to booking a top-two spot ahead of the playoffs.Travis Head and Abhshek Sharma opened the game for SRH, although the RCB bowling attack took their wickets before either of them could put up a dangerous score on the board.Travis Head was dismissed for 17 by Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Abhishek Sharma fell at 34 thanks, after being caught by Phil Salt from a Lungi Ngidi delivery. While RCB mustered confidence from their dismissals, along came Ishan Kishan to spoil the party. A man down, Kishan did spectacularly well, as he dispatched boundary after boundary in the balls that followed.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!His tailblazing 94 from just 48 deliveries changed the game for Sunrisers as they put up a massive 231 runs on the board. Besides Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen and Aniket Verman put up brilliant cameos, adding another 50 runs in just 22 balls for SRH. Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhinav Manohar and Pat Cummins also featured for SRH at the crease as they put up a total RCB had never chased before in the IPL. 232 from 120 deliveries was 206/1 against the Gujarat Titans in 2024.
RCB took to the crease with Virat Kohli and Phil Salt opening the chase. While Kohli showed intent early on with his boundaries, he was dismissed while at 43 by Harsh Dubey. His opening partner Phil Salt marhed on for a bit more, racking up 62 runs in 32 deliveries.
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However, his dismissal by Pat Cummins, followed by the successive wickets of Mayank Agarwal, Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma marked the starting of RCB’s collapse. What followed was Bengaluru wickets falling like dominoes; not a single player that came in afterwards stood at the crease for more than 6 balls. With victory in sight, SRH bowlers showed no mercy to RCB.Who’s that IPL player?
The Jitesh Sharma led squad was bowled out at 189, earning SRH victory by 42 runs. The win does not affect SRH’s position in the points table. They remain in 8th spot with 11 points, below Kolkata Knight Riders who have 12 in 13. As for RCB, their net run rate took a massive dive to +0.255, pushing them below Punjab Kings. Prior to the game on Friday, RCB were second, and a win would have put them closer to a top-two finish. Now, a win for PBKS and Mumbai Indians, who have 17 and 16 points respectively, will push them even more behind in the race for top-two.
