Match 65 of the TATA IPL 2025 played out with yet another crazy twist in a season where every match has an impact on the playoffs, as Sunrisers Hyderabad – already eliminated from playoff contention – put a dent in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s playoff aspirations with some authority, registering a clinical 42 run victory at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
This is now the second consecutive game where a team out of the qualification race put up a monumental score of over 230 and successfully defended it. Yesterday, the Lucknow Super Giants made a mockery of the Gujarat Titans and today, the Sunrisers Hyderabad turned shock into awe, causing the points table to expand further.
RCB’s First Innings: How’s that for hitting?
RCB won the toss and essentially shocked everyone by opting to bowl first, a choice that faced immediate consequence. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma produced a 50-run stand in just over 4 overs, almost genuine leather hunting in no time.
While RCB struck back with a double strike at 54 and sent both openers back, that ended the fight back.
When Ishan Kishan has had a middlingly quiet season, last night proved an age can be a shade too late for everyone to remember just how much explosive ability he possesses. He was phenomenal in a knock of 94 off just 48 balls. In an innings of power hitting, he bludgeoned the ball away with relative ease and compounded his innings with smart strike rotation, watching his team-mates tumble at the other end.
While just about everyone else around him fell apart, Kishan continued on with keeping the scoreboard moving. Occasional but useful effort from Heinrich Klaasen and Aniket, helped SRH to a final total of 231/6 in their 20 overs this evening.
RCB will ponder the absence of their pace spearhead, Josh Hazlewood, when they review this performance. He provided bite, while others malfunctioned. While Romario Shepherd’s 2-14 off 2 overs was impressive, the rest of the attack didn’t quite threaten in any significant way.
RCB’s Run Chase: Promising Start Disintegrated
Chasing down 232 – a score that we at Map Action would commonly associate with overseeing (“overhauled”) and often “if” in most IPL history – will require power and patience, RCB perhaps had started rather promisingly. A destructive opening partnership between Virat Kohli and Phil Salt was promising enough for RCB fans. Kohli appeared adept on just about any ball to attack, while Salt didn’t take long to find his stride coming off injury, produced the goods in a comfortable 62 off 32 balls, leading to RCB’s top performer in this match.
While Mayank and Salt departed early, “acting” Captain Jitesh Sharma and regular Captain Rajat Patidar, in a stage performing role, helped coordinate and manage the innings to keep RCB in the race to chase total pressure.
After 15 overs and needing approx 60 runs at the final 5-over mark, with 6 wickets in hand, this match was poised for not only aa cliffhanger finish, but fit cricket’s old adage if one convincingly “4” into one’s leg-side back of the square.
However, cricket, and thus this match, is in moments shockingly glorious, and state the ultra-unpredictable.
The Disintegration: 7 Wickets for 16 Runs
Just when it looked like RCB might do the unthinkable, the increasing required rate caused a complete disintegration. It is at least some credit to the SRH bowlers that they were able to keep cool and follow their plan.
Through a combination of welcomed variations, good fielding and prudent death bowling, RCB went from 189 for 3 to all out for 189 losing their last seven wickets for just 16 runs in just 4.1 overs.
Pat Cummins led the way with three for 28 but the bowling was shared as a collective. People like Natarajan and Umran Malik took important wickets at important times and spinners were always increasing the run-rate.
There was one significant handicap come the finish for RCB, namely Tim David, who looked to be visibly injured and instead was unable to run, which proved to be a detrimental burden come the end of the innings.
Playoff Implications: RCB’s Road Gets Harder
RCB’s hopes of finishing in the top-2 has taken a significant dent. While they will need to win their last league match, they also will be relying on the results of other matches to qualify in the top-2.
Additionally, their Net Run Rate (NRR) is not better than the Punjab Kings, which has dropped them lower in the table. All-in-all the last few league matches could become even more important, especially considering how close the race is for the top spots.
What Went Wrong for RCB?
Bowling Decisions: Obviously bowling first on a flat and predictable Bengaluru pitch against a naturally free-scoring batting lineup was a gamble that did not pay off as intended.
Death Bowling: RCB had no death bowler without Hazlewood and without Siraj, their other remaining two pacers bowling were too many boundary balls in the important stages to finish the innings.
Batting Collapse: The top order batters batted reasonably well, but in the final analysis the middle/ lower order buckled under the pressure, losing seven wickets for 16 runs is not the outcome of strange loss.
Bad Game Awareness: David’s injury and refusal to rotate in the last couple of overs raised eyebrows especially when you consider the current game and state. Game awareness was lacking and common sense should have prevailed.
Game of Redemption for SRH
This win should serve as a strong message from the Sunrisers. Once ruled out from the tournament, they take pride in playing the game with professionalism and showed today that they can match the best on a given day.
Ishan Kishan’s innings, Cummins’ captaincy along with the attitude and effort from the team altogether were signs of big positives. SRH fans may be thinking – if only they had played like this before this phase of the tournament.
Windup
Match 65 of TATA IPL 2025 is yet another reminder of how unpredictable and exhilarating this league can be. While SRH is definitely out of the playoff picture, their win will have had an effect up and down the points table. RCB is back to the drawing board. Looking ahead, their fate is not completely in their own hands – and to find oneself in a position like after a game in a tournament like the IPL is certainly not an enviable place to be.
As we head into the final matches of the league stage, the drama, excitement and heartbreak is not yet over.
