Royal Challengers Bangalore’s IPL 2025 points tables in the table of 2025 points deal with a shock as Sunrisers Hyderabad lost a 42-run defeat in Lucknow on Friday. RCB could be taken closer to their goals by winning the game, but a disadvantage has made things difficult for them only. There is only one match left in the side and it needs to win it to keep the hopes of top-two out. Disadvantage means that only one win in their final league game will not be sufficient as RCB will also have to depend on the results of other matches.
The RCB gave a golden opportunity to finish within the top two, who were going to the Sunrisers Hyderabad with Ishaan Kishan-Endhan. As a result of this heavy defeat, Royal Challengers (17 points) are third on the table behind the Gujarat Titans (18) and Punjab Kings (17). NET Run Rate (NRR) also beat up an important beating.
Once when he was asked to chase 232, the SRH set after Kishan scored an amazing 94 off 48 balls, RCB needed some calculated attack on the target.
He mounted it through Phil Salt (62, 32B, 4xx, 5×6), Virat Kohli (43, 25B, 7×4, 1×6) and Jeetesh Sharma (24, 15B), but could collect only 189 before going out of this season, and this was RCB’s first defeat.
But the start of RCB’s chase offered a separate story, as Kohli and Salt conceded 80 runs in just 7 overs.
Kohli, who recently retired from Test cricket, was the main aggressive, Passers Harshal Patel for two fours and Ishaan Malinga for six swatted in six on mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid-mid.
But an old nemesis-left-arm spin-22nd for the 22nd time fell into his stored T20 career, this time 22-year-old Harsh Dubey, for the champion Vedrabha for the most wicket-taking Ranji Trophy season in 2024-25.
However, Salt, who scored 14 runs off his first 12 balls, got his depth at the right time, scored 48 runs in the next 20 balls, and a tennis-style forhand Six of Nitish Kumar Reddy was just amazing in his execution.
Salt ran up to fifty in 27 balls, but cramps reduced his antics, and soon ended for Pat Cummins.
But on a smooth pitch, the RCB batsmen kept searching for regular boundaries to save the rate of asking.
Captain Rajat Patidar (18) and Jitesh Sharma (24) added 44 quick runs for the fourth wicket, taking RCB to 173 in the 16th over.
But among them, a terrible middle-pitch saw the Patidar running away at a distance of one or two miles, and similarly Malinga Jetty jumped the big hitting Roomio Shepherd for the first ball duck.
Jitesh selected for Ninjat and Tim David, which seems to have suffered a hamstring injury, in the space of nine delivery, the fight soon was out of the Royal Challengers.
In fact, the Bengaluru side lost the last seven wickets for 60 runs as Cummins (3/28) and Malinga (2/37), which was led on SRH bowling.
Earlier, Ballistic went from Hyderabad through normal suspects – Abhishek Sharma (34, 17B) and Travis Head (17, 10B), Kishan found his border during his 48 balls during his 48 balls with seven fours and five sixes during his 48 balls.
The famous ‘TV-Shake’ added 54 runs in just four overs, as the left hand provoked RCB new ball bowlers Yash Dayal and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Bhubaneswar scored 18 runs in the second over, as the head provoked him for a limit, followed by one six and another four Abhishek.
But soon, Abhishek inflated Lungi cash directly in the square leg waiting for the salt as the innings played on the 200 strike-rate ended.
The head also did not last long as the Australian advocated a knock ball from Bhubaneswar to Shepherd near Circle.
It soon shifted to a trend as SRH batsmen, leaving Kishan, engaged in mindless aggression to make his debut. But Kishan was a constant among all these Fambles, playing with a sensible head.
The left-handed power-hitter has become off-call after a century in the early part of the IPL, but shows a glimpse of its devastating powers in this innings.
He sometimes overdited things like some of his colleagues, and Bhubaneswar was measured in the last ball of the 18th over, it was a cure to see because he was running galloping in his first fifty in 10 innings in 28 balls.
(With PTI input)
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