IPL 2025, RCB vs SRH | Kishan back to his best in Sunrisers’ thumping win over Royal Challengers

Ishan Kishan plays a shot during IPL T20 cricket match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, in Lucknow, on May 23, 2025
| Photo Credit: PTI

Ishan Kishan scored a binding, unbeaten 94 (48b, 7×4, 5×6) and the other batters fired like sawn-off shotguns in short bursts as Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 42 runs in IPL 2025 at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Friday (May 23, 2025).

SRH’s opening duo of Abhishek Sharma (34) and Travis Head (17) stroked up a 54-run stand that fizzed and poured on the audience like sparkling champagne. The partisan RCB crowd gamely enjoyed the party as long as it lasted.

Milestone

Abhishek casually sliced an extra cover six off Lungi Ngidi before cheekily shuffling across early and scooping a slower delivery for a four to fine leg off the same bowler to bring up his 4000 T20 runs.

Klaasen, the zen master of hitting, produced a couple of his signature big hits in his 13-ball 24: from his typical hang-back trigger, he uncoiled for sixes over midwicket and long on, off Ngidi and leg-spinner Suyash Sharma.

Aniket Verma (26) went one better than Klaasen. He hit three sixes down the ground — two off Suyash to long off before promptly despatching a rank full toss straight down the ground off Krunal Pandya’s left-arm spin.

Kishan was the gravitational pull of his team’s batting. His innings was like a tugboat to an ocean liner. Three of his five sixes came at the death. He slightly shuffled across and swept one over short fine leg off a dipping full toss from Romario Shepherd; produced a well-timed, Rishabh Pant-like, one-handed six off Bhuvneshwar Kumar over long on; and sliced Yash Dayal’s slower ball from deep in the crease over wide long off in the last over. Before that sliced six, he reached out for a wide delivery, like a lizard pouching its prey, to slap it for a four to deep cover point.

Phil Salt’s 32-ball 62 was the highlight of the RCB chase. The standout shot of Salt’s innings was a mosquito-bat swat off a short ball from Nitish Kumar Reddy for a six over long off. The shot highlighted the core aspects of Salt’s batting: staying deep in the crease, getting whipcord-tight while hitting, clubbing with all his might.