High-flying RCB and SRH clash as battle for top-two spots heats up

Patidar is fit again, which leaves RCB with a tough selection call given Venkatesh Iyer's form

Ashish Pant

Published: May 21, 2026, 2:27 PM (1 hr ago)

Big Picture: Race for top two heats up

With both teams assured of playoffs spots, the Sunrisers Hyderabad-Royal Challengers Bengaluru fixture in Hyderabad might seem a dead rubber on paper. But it is far from that. Yes, both RCB and SRH have sealed top-four spots, but the question of the all-important top two positions stands. More so for the home side, SRH.

RCB are currently sitting pretty atop the points table with 18 points and an NRR of +1.065 and their place in the top two is more or less locked in. A win will 100% seal top spot for them, and with a solid NRR, they will have to lose very badly for the other teams to get past them.

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That leaves SRH (16 points, NRR 0.350) and Gujarat Titans (16 points, NRR 0.400) to fight for second spot. Not a lot separates the two teams in terms of NRR. GT face Chennai Super Kings on Thursday evening and SRH will have the advantage of knowing the exact margins they need to get past GT on Friday.

SRH have a 100% record in night games at home this season. They have won four out of six games in Hyderabad in IPL 2026, and both defeats came in day games. They will want to keep this record intact come the RCB clash. RCB haven't been great travellers this season; three of their four defeats have come on the road and SRH will want to capitalise on this. These two teams opened the season in Bengaluru on March 28 with RCB chasing down 202 with plenty to spare. But a Pat-Cummins-less SRH were much depleted at the time, particularly on the bowling front. They are in far better shape now, and will want to end their group stage on a high at home.

Form guide

Sunrisers Hyderabad WLWLW (last five matches, most recent first)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru WWWLL

Key question

Team news: RCB's Venkatesh Iyer question

RCB captain Rajat Patidar missed their last game against Punjab Kings (PBKS) with an injury. Director of cricket Mo Bobat has confirmed Patidar will play. "Rajat's good to go. We were cautious and didn't take any risks with him. We thought we'd give him a little bit longer to recover and rest, but he's here, he's practicing and he's good to go."

Against PBKS, Patidar's No. 4 slot went to Venkatesh Iyer, who top-scored for RCB and took home the Player-of-the-Match award. Now that Patidar is fit, who makes way for him remains a question. With Iyer having done well at the top of the order and Jacob Bethell enduring an off season, there is a chance RCB could promote Iyer to open the innings. The other way Iyer fits in is in place of Romario Shepherd at No. 7. Phil Salt hasn't recovered from his finger injury yet but is likely to come back for the playoffs.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (probable XII): 1 Venkatesh Iyer, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Tim David, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Rasikh Salam, 11 Josh Hazlewood, 12 Jacob Duffy.

All of SRH's players are fit, and given that they won their last two games, it is unlikely there will be any changes in the side. Travis Head and Sakib Hussain are likely to be SRH's Impact Player swaps.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (probable XII): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Travis Head, 3 Ishan Kishan (wk), 4 Heinrich Klaasen, 5 Salil Arora, 6 R Smaran, 7 Nitish Kumar Reddy, 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Shivang Kumar, 10 Eshan Malinga, 11 Sakib Hussain, 12 Praful Hinge.

In the spotlight: Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Abhishek Sharma

For 11 seasons, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the face of SRH. He was the Purple Cap winner with them in 2016 - the same year SRH won the IPL - and 2017 and still comfortably leads the all-time wickets charts for SRH (157). In the opposition team now, Bhuvneshwar returns to Hyderabad and to a venue he knows well. He might be 36, but he's still ruling the wickets columns, still getting the new ball to talk, still landing the yorkers at the death. He is leading the Purple Cap table with 24 wickets, while his economy rates of 6.71 in the powerplay and 8.8 at the death also stand out.

Abhishek Sharma, once Bhuvneshwar's team-mate at SRH, will have the task of facing him in the powerplay. The swashbuckling opener is enjoying another solid season in the IPL. He's eighth on the Orange Cap list, with 507 runs in 13 innings, and already has three fifties and a century this season. His strike rate of 201.99 once again is the highlight and SRH will bank on him to deliver against a solid RCB bowling attack.

Stats and trivia

Heinrich Klaasen is just 31 runs away from becoming the fifth SRH player to reach 2000 IPL runs.

SRH have the best death-overs economy rate so far this season (9.62). Just below them are RCB (10.07)

No batter has a better strike rate against spin this season (minimum 50 balls faced) than Rajat Patidar's 214. Not far behind, however, is Abhishek, who is striking at 213.22 against spin.

Travis Head has fallen to Jacob Duffy three times in four T20 innings and strikes at only 116 against him. His opening partner Abhishek, however, strikes at 242 against Duffy in T20s.

Patidar is just one away from 100 sixes in the IPL

Pitch and conditions

Pitch No. 2 will be used for the SRH-RCB clash in Hyderabad. Historically, this is one of the highest-scoring surfaces at the venue, and with both teams bristling with hard hitters, runs and more runs are likely to flow. On the last two occasions this surface was used in IPL 2026, SRH scored 242 for 2 against Delhi Capitals and 234 for 4 against Punjab Kings, winning both games batting first. The temperature is expected to be in the late 30s on the Celsius scale with no chance of rain.

Quotes

"Bhuvi has been brilliant. His outcomes have been excellent, he's taken a lot of wickets, but also he's bowled with excellent rhythm. We're very pleased with how he's going. He talks well in meetings, he's a good source of insight and ideas on the field under pressure. He can be a great support to Rajat and Jitesh [Sharma] as well, which is really important. We get huge value out of him because he gives us so much."

RCB team director Mo Bobat underlines Bhuvneshwar Kumar's value

Ashish Pant is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo

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