IPL 2025: Ishan Kishan dents RCB’s top 2 chances as SRH play spoilsport-OxBig News Network

SunRisers Hyderabad caused a massive dent in RCB’s hopes of finishing in the top 2 this season. Playing at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, SRH beat RCB by 42 runs on Friday, May 23. Playing their penultimate match of the season, Pat Cummins’ side turned spoilsport against Rajat Patidar’s team, who failed to come clutch after their long break.

Ishan Kishan, who has been horribly out of form in IPL 2025, turned hero for last year’s finalists, hitting an unbeaten 94 runs. Kishan’s innings helped SRH get to a total of 231 runs, which they later defended with an excellent second-half show in their bowling innings.

With the loss, RCB remained at 17 points and now can only get to 19 if they beat Lucknow Super Giants, which takes place on the final day of the group stage, May 27.

Even if RCB reach 19 points, they have to hope for favourable results from Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings, who have momentum on their side.

Kohli Fires, But RCB Lose

Only once has a total of 200+ runs been chased at the Ekana before, and that came in the previous match at this ground, when SRH played LSG on May 19. However, Virat Kohli and Phil Salt got the side off to a flying start, hitting 72 runs inside the powerplay.

The Ekana wicket was a true one where the batters could trust the bounce and the pace, the kind of pitches that have not been seen often in this season.

Kohli cut loose early, albeit helped by some terrible fielding from Nitish Kumar Reddy. Nitish first misjudged a simple chance, and let the ball go over his head while standing at deep square leg. Next, he overran the ball at the same place and gave away a boundary. Both of the instances came against Kohli and had the SRH captain shaking his head violently.

It needs to be mentioned that 72/0 in 6 overs does not necessarily reflect how well the SRH bowlers, in particular Pat Cummins bowled on Friday. Cummins hits the helmets of both openers – Kohli and Salt, which forced a break in play. But he did not get much support from the other side and runs flowed in the first 10 overs of the game.

Nitish-Eshan Come Clutch

The match changed in the 15th and 16th overs, with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Eshan Malinga mustering their best this season. With RCB requiring 69 off the final 6 overs — a completely achievable target with 7 wickets in hand — Reddy bowled a terrific over.

The India all-rounder, who rose to prominence last season, bowled a mix of yorkers, off-pace deliveries, and fast bouncers, keeping away from the hitting arc of both Patidar and Jitesh Sharma.

Nitish’s over was the first one without a single boundary in the innings, and that put pressure on the RCB batters.

SRH doubled down in the 16th over, with Eshan Malinga dismissing Rajat Patidar via a terrific run out. Patidar tucked the ball to the off side after failing to hit a boundary off Malinga in 4 balls. This resulted in Malinga rushing out, picking up the ball, and ripping out a throw to the non-striker’s end. The ball crashed into the stumps and got rid of the RCB captain, who had scored just 18 off 16 balls.

Two balls later, Malinga bowled a well-hidden slower ball and trapped Romario Shepherd (0 off 1) off his own bowling, beginning the downfall of the team.

Panic ensued as RCB had lost 2 wickets and scored just 11 runs in the last two overs. This resulted in Jitesh Sharma playing a reckless shot in the next over, handing a simple catch to Abhinav Manohar in the 17th over of the game.

This is where SRH believed that they had finished the match, and they made sure that they did not let the match slip again.

Ishan Kishan Clicks

SRH were able to score 231 runs solely due to the grit of Ishan Kishan. Kishan bit down on the pitch after failing to time the ball early in his innings and slowly grew into the game. Kishan anchored the innings when people were falling around him and made sure that SRH went past the 220-run mark, which they were eyeing initially.

Kishan’s innings was supported by Heinrich Klaasen (24 off 13), Aniket Verma (26 off 9), and Pat Cummins (13* off 6), who timed the ball better than him but got out trying to hit the big shots. With Cummins, Kishan took a host of doubles in the final two overs, helping his side to the 231-run target.

This was Kishan’s first 50+ score since hitting a hundred in his first game for SRH. He remained unbeaten at 94, but the innings perhaps came too late this season. It has always been said about Kishan that he is a supremely talented batter, but it is his temperament and work ethic that have been questioned over the past two years.

On Friday, Kishan once again showed that he was a world-class batter, even when he is not at his best, but probably needs to show this grit more often next season.

Kishan’s innings would put SRH in a dilemma — to keep him or to oust him from the team, given his high price tag.