Eshan Malinga and Pat Cummins masterminded a thrilling collapse of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru batting lineup, beating them to 189 in their 20-over quota.
The dominating show helped Sunrisers Hyderabad register a 42-run victory in Match 65 of IPL 2025, played at the Ekana Stadium on Friday. The win also kept Jitesh Sharma's RCB from reaching the points table top.
Earlier in the day, Ishan Kishan anchored SRH innings with an unbeaten 94, taking his team to a daunting 231/6. For Bengaluru, Romario Shepherd was the pick of bowlers with the ball, taking 2 wickets for 14 runs in his two-over spell.
Coming out to bat for the first time after declaring his Test retirement, Virat Kohli played a defiant 43. He began with a late cut off Cummins, and followed up by driving Jaydev Unadkat off his toes through the off-side. Kohli also played a perfectly timed pull off Cummins that just escaped the hands of Nitesh Kumar Reddy, displaying vintage aggression despite Phil Salt (62) finding it difficult to find fluency at the other end.
Salt received an early let-off when a high full toss by Harshal Patel was called no-ball, although it was taken at the boundary. Ironically, he got caught once more off the next delivery—a full toss again—but it was a free hit.
In spite of the warning signals, Kohli took on Harshal with two elegant boundaries, one over the covers and another over mid-off, the latter being his 800th T20 boundary. Salt's first genuine boundary was in the fifth over (excluding a leg-bye four off his helmet), taking RCB past fifty.
When Malinga came in to bat for the attack, Kohli welcomed him with a six, before Salt got going with a four and an over. As the chase was on the right lines, Kohli sliced a catch at backward point to Abhishek after underestimating bounce from Harsh Dubey.
Mayank Agarwal, replacing injured Devdutt Padikkal, scored 11 runs, while Salt took over with crisp shots—blasting sixes off both Harshal and Malinga and reaching his half-century in only 27 deliveries. But Reddy then removed Agarwal returning with a ball that grazed the edge and was caught safely by Klassen.
Opportunists that they are, isn't it, Cummins went back into the attack and got Harshal Patel to dismiss the risky Salt, who over-timed a full ball, providing the bowler with an easy catch. Jitesh Sharma, standing in for the captain, kept the pursuit going with a six on his very first delivery, and with regular skipper Rajat Patidar playing as an impact sub because of injury, addition of rapid runs.
RCB remained in contention, getting to 167/3 at the close of the 15th over after taking 10 off Harshal and 16 off Unadkat. Reddy's tight spell, however, brought pressure, and Malinga made the most of it. A quick return and direct throw from him got Patidar run out, who was attempting to steal a single mid-pitch.
During the same over, Malinga took a vicious return catch to get rid of Shepherd, and followed up by watching Jitesh hole out off deep mid-wicket. Tim David, who had already damaged himself in the first over, struggled visibly to run between the wickets and got bowled tamely by Malinga, cutting a low full toss straight to long-on.
Cummins returned to dismiss Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3), and Krunal Pandya (8) was unlucky to get his own stumps. The last nail was driven in by Harshal Patel, who got Yash Dayal (3) caught deep, marking the end of RCB's hopes and handing Hyderabad an emphatic 42-run win.
Match Summary:
Sunrisers Hyderabad – 231/6 (20 overs):
Ishan Kishan 94, Abhishek Sharma 34, Aniket Verma 26
Romario Shepherd 2-14
Royal Challengers Bengaluru – 189 all out (20 overs):
Phil Salt 62, Virat Kohli 43
Pat Cummins 3-28, Eshan Malinga 2-37
Result: Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 42 runs.
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