Despite suffering a 55-run defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad, Royal Challengers Bengaluru secured top spot in the Indian Premier League.

The top three teams are all tied on 18 points, but when it came down to net run-rate, SRH had not done enough to move into the top two, finishing behind the Gujarat Titans.

Sunrisers posted a mammoth score of 255-4, but knew they needed to restrict RCB to 166 or fewer during the chase, a challenge they could not rise to.

By the time Travis Head (26) was dismissed at the end of the fourth over by Rasikh Salam (2-52), SRH were already on 45, with Abhishek Sharma scoring 56 before following him off.

But it was their third-wicket partnership of 113 from Ishan Kishan (79) and Heinrich Klaasen (51) that did the most damage, with Nitish Kumar Reddy also chipping in with an unbeaten 29 to give them a strong total.

RCB made a strong start thanks to Venkatesh Iyer's 44, but they started to slip with Virat Kohli (15) and Devdutt Padikkal (21) unable to find their rhythm.

Rajat Patidar offered some hope with his half-century (56), but once he was dismissed with RCB on 178-4 with only 10 balls remaining, there was too much left to do, even with Krunal Pandya (41 not out) at the crease.

Didn’t ace the last test, still topped the class!

On to the next one on Tuesday. pic.twitter.com/L2hHrU9QZ4

— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) May 22, 2026

Data Debrief: Kohli makes history

Kohli made his 281st appearance in the IPL on Friday, overtaking Rohit Sharma in the list, and though he would have liked to mark it with a win, it was not all bad.

He has now hit 557 runs this season, leaving him eighth in the race for the Orange Cap, with this his fourth consecutive season with 500+.