RCB Stay Top Despite 55-Run Loss to SRH, Set for Qualifier 1 Clash vs Gujarat Titans

Royal Challengers Bengaluru stayed at the top of the points table even after a heavy 55-run loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad in Uppal. RCB will still get two chances in the playoffs. They will play Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1 in Dharamsala on May 26. SRH finished third in the league stage and will wait to find out their opponent in the Eliminator.

The Sunrisers needed a huge, huge win in this game to derail RCB from the top two spot, and Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to bat first. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma went hammer and tongs early on, before Rasikh Salam knocked over the Australian with a peach of a yorker. Abhishek continued to blaze, scoring his first fifty against RCB. It was the brutal partnership between Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen that batted the defending champions out of the contest. Both scored their respective fifties and kept piling on the runs. Nitish Kumar Reddy gave the final flourish with a cameo as SRH hammered 255/4 in 20 overs.

RCB Stay Top Despite Heavy Loss to SRH; Set for Qualifier 1 Against Gujarat Titans

RCB needed an explosive start to get anywhere closer to this record run chase. Venkatesh Iyer, getting a chance at the top, smashed SRH bowlers to all parts of the ground and hit a cracking 44 off just 19 balls. But RCB failed to capitalise on the start, with the likes of Eshan Malinga, Sakib Hussain, Cummins and Harshal Patel executing their plans of bowling into the wicket beautifully and never allowing the defending champions to get away.

Both Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal got a start, but once the two stylish batters were dismissed, RCB dropped their plan to go after the target. Instead, Rajat Patidar and Krunal Pandya decided to stitch a partnership and reached 166 and 178 as their first two goals. Patidar was struggling in the middle but managed to complete a fifty.

Krunal remained unbeaten on 41 off 31 balls, while Tim David came late into the act and hit a couple of boundaries during his short stay towards the end as the visitors managed to score 200/4 in exactly 20 overs. There was no intent in the second half of the run chase despite the likes of David and Shepherd in the lineup. However, the final result will give RCB more relief than the hosts.