Kishan shines as Hyderabad defeat Bengaluru

Ishan Kishan lashed a brilliant, unbeaten 94 from just 48 balls to lead the Sunrisers Hyderabad to a daunting total of 231-6 and victory by 42-runs in their IPL match against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Bharat Ratna Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Friday.

Englishman Phil Salt (62 from 32 balls) and Virat Kohli (43 from 25) lead a spirited assault to the daunting run-chase but the mountain was far too high to climb and they succumbed to 189 all out in 19.5 overs.

Ishan began the campaign with a rasping century in the first game but has endured a mostly barren tournament until this game in which he delivered seven fours and five sixes of innovative and powerful batting characterised by the speed of his hands and skilful placement.

Opener Abhishek Sharma (34 from 17 balls) was also back to his best with a trio of fours and sixes while Heinrich Klaasen drove and pulled a pair of both in his 24 from 13 balls before miscuing to mid-off.

The tempo was maintained by Aniket Verma who’s 26 came from just nine balls (1x4, 3x6) as the Sunrisers threw caution to the wind in pursuit of a consolation victory having been eliminated from Play-Off contention two weeks earlier.

It was a bad day to be a bowler with four of the RCB attack conceding well over 10 runs per over – Lungi Ngidi’s four overs yielding 1-51.

The result dented RCB’s hopes of a top-two finish and a simpler route to the final although they remain in second position and can still finish in the top two with victory in their final league match. But they could also finish in third or fourth place requiring an Eliminator and Qualifier victory to reach the final. Sunrisers, meanwhile, remained in eighth place with their fifth victory from 13 games.

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wkt), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (captain), Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga

ROYAL CHALLENGERS BENGALURU: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Mayank Agarawal, Jitesh Sharma (captain/wkt), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Lungi Ngidi, Suyash Sharma