In match 65 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) will play Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Thursday, May 18 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.
Even though SRH is no longer in the running for a spot in the playoffs, they will want to get some pride back. In their last game, they lost by 34 runs to the Gujarat Titans (GT).
But RCB has a lot more at stake than just pride. With 12 points from 12 games, they are very close to making the playoffs. In their last match, they beat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 112 runs after only letting them score 59 runs. Their net run rate, which is now +0.166, went up a lot because of how much they won by.
If you look at how Hyderabad and Bangalore have done against each other, SRH has won 12 of the 22 games between the two teams, while RCB has won only nine. One game had no outcome.
Over the years of the IPL, there have been some great games between these two teams. Before the next match between SRH and RCB, we look back at three of their most famous games.
IPL 2021 – RCB won by six runs:
In a low-scoring match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai for the IPL 2021, Royal Challengers Bangalore beat SunRisers Hyderabad by six runs. As the first team to bat, RCB was only able to score 149/8. But their bowlers kept SRH to a score of 143/9. Virat Kohli scored 33 runs for Bangalore, but Glenn Maxwell was the team’s best hitter. He hit 59 runs off of 41 balls, with five fours and three sixes. Maxwell was pretty quiet most of the time, but he opened up at the end. In the second-to-last over, he hit T. Natarajan for two fours and Jason Holder for a six, but he was out on the last ball.
Then, Shahbaz Ahmed (3/7), Harshal Patel (2/25) and Mohammed Siraj (2/25) did great things with the ball in RCB’s close win. David Warner hit 54 runs to lead SRH, and Manish Pandey added 38 runs. But after 96/1, Hyderabad fell apart in a way that no one could explain. It came down to 16 runs needing to be scored in the last over, but Harshal only gave up nine runs, and Bangalore pulled off a famous come-from-behind win.
IPL 2013 – SRH won via Super Over:
In the seventh match of the 2013 IPL, SRH beat RCB in a low-scoring battle at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. The game went to the Super Over.
Bangalore batted first in the match, but even though Kohli (46) and Moises Henriques (44) played well, they were only able to score 130/8. Ishant Sharma’s scores of 3 and 27 were the best for SRH.
In response, Bangalore kept hitting at regular intervals. At 101/6, Hyderabad was in trouble. Jaydev Unadkat (2/24) and Henriques (2/14) did a great job with the ball. But Hanuma Vihari played a strong knock (44* off 46 balls) to keep SRH in the game.
Vihari and Dale Steyn took a bye off the last ball to tie the game when they needed two runs off the last ball. SRH got 20 points in the Super Over because Cameron White hit Vinay Kumar for two sixes. Even though Kohli and Chris Gayle were facing him in the Super Over, Steyn kept RCB at 15 runs.
IPL 2016 – SRH won by eight runs:
In the IPL 2016 final at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, SunRisers Hyderabad beat Royal Challengers Bangalore. In a summit match with a lot of runs, SRH played first and put up a big score of 208/7.
David Warner, who was captain, scored the most runs with 69 off of 38 balls. Yuvraj Singh scored 38 runs in 23 balls, and Ben Cutting scored 39* runs in 15 balls to finish the game. Chris Jordan got three wickets for Bangalore, but he also gave up 45 runs.
Gayle (76 runs off 38 balls) and Kohli (54 runs off 35 balls) put on 114 runs for the first wicket in 10.3 overs to get RCB off to a great start in their chase. Gayle hit Cutting’s ball to third man, which finished the great stand. Then, Kohli hit his stumps with a ball from Barinder Sran.
After Kohli was out, AB de Villiers (5), KL Rahul (11), Shane Watson (11) and Stuart Binny (9) all died quickly, and Bangalore lost all direction.
In the end, RCB were held to 200/7, and Cutting (2/35), who did a great job in every way, was named Player of the Final.
