Ishan Kishan slammed an unbeaten 94 from 48 balls versus Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Match 65 of the IPL 2025 season in Lucknow. Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Ishan Kishan looked in solid touch throughout his stay and helped the Orange Army rack up a mammoth 231/6 in 20 overs.
Ishan Kishan’s blitz and key partnerships with other batters helped SRH after they were asked to bat. Ishan Kishan missed his second century of the 2025 season by six runs, but his blazing efforts helped SRH put up a massive 232-run target on a batting-friendly pitch. The southpaw hit five sixes and seven fours. In reply, RCB were bowled out for 189 in 19.5 overs.
A masterful unbeaten 94 from Ishan Kishan and a game-changing over from Eshan Malinga helped SRH dent RCB’s hopes of finishing in the top two in IPL 2025. RCB can still go on to secure a spot that can give them extra cushion in the playoffs but will now have to rely on other results after squandering an excellent opportunity in Lucknow on Friday (May 23).
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : We are on pitch no. 4 in Lucknow. The square boundaries are 60m and 67m respectively, 74m down the ground. The surface is quite dark in colour. There’s a decent matting of grass on it, patchy in places. It’s very dry, hence the ball will grip in the surface. Spinners will enjoy bowling here.
The pacers can take pace off the ball and expect it to hold in the surface, they might get some assistance. Teams love chasing here, so need to get 180-plus if you bat here. The bias is towards batting second and chase. It’s a wicket where you can’t play through the line. The opposition might make some mistakes if they go hard at the top. A pitch where 180-odd is a gettable total.
Toss : Royal Challengers Bengaluru stand in skipper Jitesh Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl with regular skipper Rajat Patidar in as Impact player and Mayank Agarwal in place of injured Devdutt Padikkal. Sunrisers Hyderbad skipper Pat Cummins battting first made three changes in the playing XI bringing in Travis Head, Jaydev Unadkat and Abhinav Manohar in the playing XI.
Ishan Kishan’s brilliant unbeaten 94 powers SRH to 231 for 6 in 20 overs
After winning the toss on Friday, stand-in skipper Jitesh Sharma opted to bowl. SRH’s openers, Abhishek Sharma (34 off 17 balls) and Travis Head (17 off 10 balls), put on 54 off 24 balls. However, both of them were dismissed in the space of three deliveries and the team was reduced to 54-2 in 4.2 overs.
While the returning Travis Head kickstarted his innings with a boundary in the first over, it was Abhishek Sharma who caused damage early in the powerplay. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal and Lungi Ngidi bore the brunt of his little cameo as he hit three fours and cleared the ropes thrice as well.
Ngidi managed to remove the dangerman as Abhishek’s well timed flick found the fielder at the deep. But by the time he departed, SRH had 54 on the board in just four overs. Against the run of play though, SRH lost another wicket with Head mistiming one off Bhuvneshwar in the very next over. Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen then added a boundary each in the sixth over to ensure it was still SRH’s powerplay despite the setbacks.
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.
The phase after the powerplay got off to a banger as Klaasen welcomed Suyash Sharma into the attack with a four and a six to signal his intentions. While Krunal Pandya delivered a quiet over, SRH were on the rampage again when Suyash returned as the boundaries continued to flow to take the total past 100. But once again against the run of play, a wicket fell as Klaasen failed to clear the man at the long-on boundary.
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.
It had no effect on SRH’s approach though as Aniket Verma walked in and smashed sixes at will to keep RCB on the back foot. Aniket’s 9-ball 26 meant SRH had no reason to worry about their scoring rate as they were on course to post a massive total again – something that was a regular feature in IPL 2024. Nitish Reddy had another dull outing but Ishan Kishan, who had gone past fifty by this time, was the key for SRH heading into the slog overs.
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. Ishan 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.
Ishan Kishan then smashed 50 runs off 28 balls. Cameos from Heinrich Klaasen (24 off 13) and Aniket Verma (26 off nine) steered Hyderabad past the 200-run mark. They scored 43 runs in the last three overs.
Ishan Kishan did his job to perfection at the death as he propelled SRH to an imposing total. Romario Shepherd did bowl an impressive spell, adding the wicket of Abhinav Manohar as well at a crucial phase but Ishan Kishan kept going at the other end. After executing a perfect scoop for a six, the left-hander took on Bhuvneshwar for a four and a big one as SRH breached 200. Pat Cummins collected crucial runs in the penultimate over before Ishan Kishan took charge again in the final over to finish unbeaten on 94.
Ishan Kishan’s 94* was laced with 7 fours and 5 sixes. He struck at 195.83. Notably, this was his 17th fifty in IPL. He also owns 1 ton. In 118 matches (111 innings), he has 2,969 runs at 29.10. In the IPL 2025 season, Ishan Kishan has scored 325 runs from 13 matches (12 innings) at 36.11. He has one ton and a fifty for SRH. As per ESPNcricinfo, Ishan Kishan now owns 5,241 runs in 20 overs cricket from 205 matches (196 innings). He averages 28.79. He hit his 29th fifty (100s: 4).
Ishan Kishan’s 94* has taken him to 478 runs versus RCB in the IPL from 14 matches. He averages 36.76 and his strike rate reads 164.82. Kishan registered his 3rd fifty versus RCB. He has smoked 32 sixes and 37 fours.
Eshan Malinga’s 2 wickets and strong bowling grants SRH a thumping 42 runs win over RCB
It was all Virat Kohli in the powerplay as RCB matched SRH’s efforts without losing wickets. Kohli fetched three boundaries off Cummins and added two more off Harshal Patel after the pacer had initially appeared to have dismissed Phil Salt in that over, only for the third umpire to rule the full toss as a no-ball. Salt, batting on 5 off 9 at this point, finally broke free with a boundary off Jaydev Unadkat before unleashing on Eshan Malinga in the final over of the powerplay. If SRH made 71, RCB’s efforts saw them score a run more without losing Kohli or Salt.
The much-needed wicket came immediately after the powerplay as Harsh Dubey staged a good comeback after conceding a six earlier as Kohli departed for 43. But that forced Salt to take charge and he put the SRH bowling attack under the pump with a few brutal shots, regularly clearing the fence as well.
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.
He got to a fifty off just 27 balls and at the halfway mark, RCB were actually ahead of SRH. But finally, SRH managed to pull things back in a matter of five deliveries when Mayank Agarawal and Salt fell in consecutive overs. Even though Jitesh Sharma walked out all guns blazing, racing to 20 off just 8 at one point, Nitsh Reddy delivered the first boundaryless over of the innings in the 15th over as the equation came down to 65 from 30.
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
The final phase of this game began in terrific fashion from SRH’s perspective as Eshan Malinga turned the game on its head. His inch-perfect yorker resulted in Rajat Patidar risking a single and Malinga managed to effect a direct-hit to run out the batter. If that wasn’t enough, a superb slower delivery caught Shepherd off-guard as he went through the drive early, only to hit it back to the bowler.
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
RCB then found themselves well and truly in trouble as they also lost the big wicket of Jitesh in the very next over when he mistimed one to get caught near the boundary. In a desperate last-ditch attempt at reviving the chase, RCB sent out a limping Tim David who had hurt himself right at the end of SRH’s innings.
Hampered severely, David could only rely on his big-hitting and was unable to take those quick singles. Malinga made use of that to deliver three successive dot balls to bring the equation down to 53 off 15 and eventually also dismissed the Australian as he found the fielder at the deep off the fourth ball. That was easily the final nail in the coffin as the wheels came off spectacularly for RCB to fall well short of the target by 42 runs .
Presentations and Road Ahead
Jitesh Sharma the losing RCB skipper said : I think 20-30 runs were extra, I don’t have any answers (how RCB lost from that situation.) We were rusty and I think intensity wasn’t there, but it’s good to lose this game. I was upset because I got out, I wasn’t in that zone to meet Tim David who was injured.
I think losing this game was good, the positive things are that we are batting well. After this loss I think it’s good to get this setback, we will bounce back in a good way in the upcoming games.
Pat Cummins thee winning SRH skipper said : Little bit too late this season but good allround effort with both bat and ball. Now that Nitish is back bowling, does feel like we’ve a genuine sixth bowler. Abhishek’s always telling me that he’s a good option and I should use him. So much power for someone who’s not as tall as some others (talking about Kishan). We actually misread the wicket.
Thought it might have been a 170 wicket, and then all the batters came back and said it’s a really good wicket and to keep going. He’s been great (Malinga). Wherever you bowl him, he’s taken wickets. He’s got plenty of tools – the fast yorker and the great dipping slower ball. Has been a find this season.
Ishan Kishan Player of the Match for his brilliant unbeaten 94* runs said : When you get to bat first and both openers are looking in good touch, it’s your job to keep the momentum going. The moment I saw Abhishek and Head starting the game like that, I just knew it’s a very good wicket and we have to go over 200 at least. Your approach changes when wickets are falling, but you try to keep the momentum going.
For that you need to play some good shots. You get that confidence when you bat well in the practice sessions. I was just thinking of playing good shots. One side was very big and there were gaps. Not so happy with the performance overall. We could’ve done much better overall. I could’ve done much more for my team. It’s a game of learning. These things happen. You just have to keep believing in yourself and keep working hard.
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.
That win margin is a deceptive one because this game was anything but one-sided. RCB were right on track in the chase till as far as the 14th over. The fireworks from Kohli and Salt at the top, and then a good start from Jitesh in the middle order meant that they would’ve fancied their chances of chasing down the massive target of 232. But the momentum started to turn in the 15th over with a good over from Nitish Kumar Reddy who hasn’t bowled much this season.
And then, in the very next over, the game swung sharply in favour of SRH thanks to a double-strike from Eshan Malinga. Hammered for 17 in his first over, he came back and nailed his yorkers to perfection, showing good control and finding some reverse with the older ball. He ran out Patidar, removed Shepherd for a golden duck, and Jitesh was dismissed soon after as RCB went on to lose their last seven wickets for just 16 runs.
With a very good victory behind them, SRH will travel to Delhi for their final fixture in IPL 2025 when they take on Kolkata Knight Riders. RCB on Tuesday (May 27) will play the final league game of the season, at the same venue against Lucknow Super Giants. If there is an opportunity for RCB to still secure a top two spot by that time, they will know exactly what they need to do.
RCB no longer have their destiny in their own hands as far as a top-two finish is concerned. They’ll have to hope for either of GT or PBKS to lose before it’s their turn to face LSG in the final league match of the season. As for SRH, they play their final match on Sunday against KKR. They’ve won two in a row now and will hope to sign off in style.
Also Read: RCB vs SRH: SRH’s Roar Silences The Mighty RCB