Kishan, SRH quicks dent RCB's chances of a top-two finish

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) proved to be the banana peel they were feared to be for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), who still remained one point behind the table-leaders Gujarat Titans with Punjab Kings (PBKS) now breathing down their necks with one game in hand.

Ishan Kishan, who had fizzled out after his century in the first match with just 125 runs off 117 in ten innings since then, anchored a hyper-aggressive SRH to 231. He was as efficient an anchor could be: scoring an unbeaten 94 off 48, including 54 out of the last 86 runs SRH made as he ran out of hitting partners.

Led by Phil Salt, RCB stayed abreast with the asking rate for 14 overs, but then endured a collapse of 7 for 16 to lose by 42 runs, a net-run-rate blow that could dent their chances of ending in the top two. They have fallen below PBKS' net run rate, who are level with them on points.

The pitch looked tricky to everyone, but within one over of batting there, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma decided this was perhaps the best pitch they had batted on all year. They decided they needed 230-240 and went looking accordingly. Abhishek started the charge with 34 off 17, hitting three sixes and perishing trying to hit a fourth. Head was slightly slower in his 17 off ten, and was outdone by a Bhuvneshwar Kumar knuckle ball.

Two wickets down in the powerplay, SRH saw no reason to slow down. Heinrich Klaasen got a couple of gifts from Suyash Sharma and smacked 24 off 13 before mis-hitting a third gift. Aniket Verma made all this look pedestrian as he hit sixes off even good balls in his nine-ball 26.

The only problem was, none of them could carry on, leaving SRH at 145 for 4 in the 12th over.

He looked sedentary in comparison but Kishan was 40 off 22 when Aniket got out. Especially with Nitish Kumar Reddy and Abhinav Manohar falling in quick succession to Romario Shepherd, it was on Kishan to make sure SRH had a finishing kick.

Kishan took charge, faced 12 balls out of 18 in his seventh-wicket stand of 43 with Pat Cummins, and ended up one hit short of another century. The hitting was clean but he had to dial down the risk a little. He did play a ramp in between.

Aware of the behaviour of the pitch, SRH looked to go into the pitch and run their fingers on the ball often. RCB, though, showed why they were so close to the top of the table. Each of the first 14 overs featured at least one boundary. Virat Kohli started the charge with 43 off 25, Salt took over spectacularly with 62 off 32, and SRH were just hanging in.

Reddy hasn't had the best season with the bat, was untidy in the field, but then started the turnaround with the wicket of Mayank Agarwal in the 11th over. Cummins came back with the wicket of Salt, but RCB stand-in captain Jitesh Sharma hit a six first ball, and Rajat Patidar looked in decent touch. Even with those two wickets falling, RCB kept the asking rate under two runs a ball.

Reddy came back to bowl the first over without a boundary in the 15th, and then Eshan Malinga delivered the big blows. Banging the ball in in the first half had probably aided a bit of reverse. He kept nailing the yorkers, changing up with the odd slower ball. He ran out Patidar, drew a return catch from Shepherd, and handcuffed the injured Tim David, who seemed to have done his hamstring when fielding.

The dramatic slide continued to the end of the innings.