3 Reasons RCB Lost To SRH IPL 2025: The Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated the Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 42 runs after making 239 runs in Match 65 of the Indian Premier League 2025. The match was played on Friday, May 23, at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru had already qualified for the playoffs before this match. They started their season off with a massive win over defending champions KKR, followed by a win over CSK. Then came a loss to GT and a win over MI; a defeat to DC and a victory against RR came next. After a loss to the Punjab Kings came four wins in a row against PBKS, RR, DC, and CSK. RCB’s second match against KKR this season was abandoned due to rain. After tonight’s loss against SRH, the Royal Challengers have eight wins, one washout, 17 wins, and a positive net run rate, putting them third on the points table.
As for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, they have won only five games this season, having defeated RR, PBKS, and CSK, and now have back-to-back wins against LSG and RCB. They have also lost eight matches, losing to LSG, DC, KKR, GT, twice against MI, and GT. Their match against DC was abandoned due to rain. With five wins, one washout, 11 points, and a poor net run rate, the Sunrisers are eighth on the points table
Today, we will look back at three reasons why RCB, who needed a win here to strengthen their push for the top two, lost this game.
3 Reasons RCB Lost To SRH IPL 2025
3) RCB Bowling Struggles
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowling line-up did not do a good enough job of stopping the flow of runs. SRH being able to make 231 runs speaks for itself. But it is worse than you think, and every proper RCB bowler had a poor outing today in the absence of their ace pacer Josh Hazlewood.
The most experienced bowler and the face of this team’s bowling attack, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, struggled at both ends of the innings. He ended his four-over spell with the figures of 1/43 at 10.75 rpo. Despite dismissing Travis Head during the powerplay, the Sunrisers managed to amass a lot of runs in the first six overs.
Then comes Lungi Ngidi, who had a worse day at the job. The South African fast bowler did manage to dismiss a dangerous-looking Abhishek Sharma in just his second over, but he was dispatched all over the ground before that. Ngidi conceded 51 runs in four overs at an economy of 12.75 and took one wicket.
Yash Dayal gave away 36 runs in three overs at an economy of 12 and took no wickets. Suyash Sharma did take one wicket, dismissing Heinrich Klassen, but he also conceded 45 runs at an economy of 15. And Krunal Pandya gave away 38 runs in four overs at 9.5 rpo and took one wicket.
The pick of the bowlers was Romario Shepherd, who bowled just two overs but conceded just 14 runs. He also took two wickets, dismissing Nitish Kumar Reddy and Abhinav Manohar at a crucial point in the match.
Check Out: 3 Reasons RCB Lost To SRH IPL 2025
2) Falter At The Death
On a flat pitch like tonight’s, RCB could have chased this massive target of 232 down. The team even got off to a decent start. The opening partnership of Virat Kohli and Phil Salt made 80 runs in seven overs before Kohli got out for 43 off 25. Salt would go on to make 62 off 32. But no one after these two kept the momentum going.
Mayank Agarwal made 11 off 10, Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma batted together for a while and planned on taking the team into the death overs as settled batters, but that is where it started going all wrong.
With 65 runs needed in the last six overs, the target was chasable. But on the fourth ball of this over by Eshan Malinga, the regular captain of the team, Rajat Patidar, was run out. Then, on the very next ball, the dangerous Romario Shepherd was caught and bowled.
Still, Bengaluru had a stellar lower middle order, with batters who have finished matches like this throughout this season. But that was not to be tonight. On the second ball of the 16th over by Jaydev Unadkat, stand-in captain Jitesh Sharma skied the ball and was caught in the deep for 24 off 15.
This brought Krunal Pandya and Tim David to strike. While David is a specialist for situations like this, he had suffered a hamstring injury while fielding today, an injury that threatens to end his season early. It was visible that the Aussie was in a lot of pain, seeing he couldn’t even run a single even when the ball neared the boundary rope.
David got out for one, Krunal only scored eight, and the tail did not provide much resistance as RCB was all out for 189, falling 42 runs short of the target in this Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru match.
Check Out: 3 Reasons RCB Lost To SRH IPL 2025
1) Ishan Kishan Wilds Out
To be fair to the RCB batting attack, the match looked already out of reach when SRH scored 231 runs while batting first after losing the toss. To open the inning, in came Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, and the two went all out at the start of the inning. 54 runs were scored in the first four overs before Abhishek was dismissed for 34 off 17.
Head got out in the next over. And by the time Heinrich Klassen was dismissed for 24 off 13, the score was already 102/3. By this time, Ishan Kishan had already arrived at the pitch but was playing a supporting role. But after Klaasen’s dismissal, Kishan took charge.
The wicketkeeper/batter had scored a century in the Sunrisers’ first match of the season but has since looked out of form. Tonight, it felt like that form was back. Ishan made his 50 in 28 deliveries and only accelerated after that. He did not get too much batting in the death overs, as other batters took the strike more. But at the end of the 20 overs, Ishan Kishan had scored 94 off 48 and played the primary role in taking his team to such a massive score in this Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru match.
It must be said that a few more runs could be made in the death, but the likes of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Abhinav Manohar played slowly. Some credit should go to captain Pat Cummins, who scored 13 off six.
Check Out: 3 Reasons RCB Lost To SRH IPL 2025
Get IPL 2025 Live Score, Team Updates along with the Latest Player News at IceCric.News and Follow for Live Updates – Facebook & Instagram.
