The Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) chances of finishing in the top two positions in the league were dashed on Friday (May 23) with a crushing defeat to the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). RCB’s final home game had to be played in Lucknow due to bad weather in Bengaluru.
A strong knock from Ishan Kishan helped SRH by leaving RCB’s bowlers reeling, as they made 231/6. It was a good start for Bengaluru as Phil Salt (62 off 32) and Virat Kohli (43 off 25) helped take them to 120/1 in the 11th over. Regular wickets just after those runs caused RCB’s momentum to collapse. The team got all out for 189 and lost the game by 42 runs.
The Royal Challengers fell to third position in the table with this loss, with 17 points from 13 games and a net run rate of 0.255. However, RCB would need Bengaluru to defeat the Lucknow Super Giants on May 27 in order to finish in first place, and the Gujarat Titans and Punjab Kings to lose their remaining games in order to finish in the top two slots.
Another possibility is that Punjab Kings loses their next two games while GT defeats the Chennai Super Kings in their final match. In order to finish second, Bengaluru would therefore need to defeat the Lucknow Super Giants in their final encounter.
“20-30 runs extra” – Jitesh Sharma reflects on RCB’s defeat to SRH
Jitesh Sharma led Bengaluru’s first game and their second in the league as a stand-in captain, although they lost. He remarked after the defeat (via ESPNcricinfo):
“I think it was 20-30 runs extra. They played very well. I didn’t have any answers for their attack. We were rusty. The intensity was not there initially… In the death, we were bowling more accurately. Right now, I haven’t met David because I was upset that I got out. Sometimes losing a game is a very good sign because you can check and analyse. The positive things are that everyone’s chipping in. After this loss, we’ve got a setback to check [things] again. We’ll move forward.”
Jitesh Sharma
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru now have one match remaining on their schedule — against Lucknow. May 27 will be the last league game at the BRSABV Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
