New Delhi: Royal Challengers Bengaluru lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad, led by Ishan Kishan, by 42 runs here on Friday, wasting a great opportunity to place in the top two of the IPL points table.

This crushing loss has caused Royal Challengers (17 points) to drop to third place in the standings, behind Punjab Kings (17) and Gujarat Titans (18). Additionally, the Net Run Rate (NRR) suffered a severe setback. RCB needed to launch a well-planned attack on the target after they were asked to chase an intimidating 232, which the SRH set after Kishan made an incredible, undefeated 94 off 48 balls.

Virat Kohli (43, 25b, 7x4, 1x6), Jitesh Sharma (24, 15b), and Phil Salt (62, 32b, 4xx, 5x6) helped them mount it, but they were only able to gather 189. However, the start of RCB's chase told a different story, with Salt and Kohli sprinting to 80 runs in just 7 overs.

Recently retired from Test cricket, Kohli was the main aggressor, hitting pacers Eshan Malinga for a swatted six over mid-wicket and Harshal Patel for two fours. However, for the 22nd time in his illustrious T20 career, the veteran lost to his old foe, left-arm spin, this time to Harsh Dubey, a 22-year-old who took the most wickets for Vidarbha, the 2024-25 Ranji Trophy champions.

But Salt, who scored 14 off his first 12 balls, found his depth just in time, scoring 48 runs in the next 20 balls, and Nitish Kumar Reddy's tennis-style forehand six was simply amazing. Salt quickly reached fifty runs in twenty-seven balls, but cramps limited his movement, and he was bowled out by Pat Cummins.

To prevent the asking rate from rising, however, the RCB hitters continued to find regular boundaries on a fairly smooth pitch. In the 16th over, RCB reached 173 for three thanks to 44 fast runs for the fourth wicket from captain Rajat Patidar (18) and Jitesh Sharma (24).

However, Patidar was outrun by a few miles due to a terrible mid-pitch between them, and in the same over Malinga jettisoned big-hitting Romario Shepherd for a first-ball duck. In nine deliveries, Jitesh was out of the game as the Royal Challengers lost to Unadkat and Tim David, who seemed to have a hamstring injury.

As SRH's bowling attack was spearheaded by Cummins (3/28) and Malinga (2/37) the Bengaluru team actually lost the final seven wickets for 60 runs. Before Kishan found his range in his 48-ball knock that featured seven fours and five sixes, the Hyderabad team had already gone ballistic from the start with the usual suspects, Travis Head (17, 10b) and Abhishek Sharma (34, 17b).

As the left-handers hammered RCB new ball bowlers Yash Dayal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the renowned "Travi-shek" contributed 54 runs in just four overs. In the second over, Bhuvneshwar gave up 18 runs after Head hit him for a boundary, followed by a six and another four from Abhishek.

Abhishek, however, quickly ended the innings that played at a strike-rate of 200 by flicking Lungi Ngidi directly into Salt's waiting hands at square leg.