Live Report - IPL 2023 - Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, Hyderabad

This win has taken RCB into the top four for the moment. They are level on points with Mumbai Indians, but have a healthier net run rate. Both have a game each left. Both will be hoping that either LSG or CSK or both lose their last match. But if CSK and LSG win on Saturday and ensure passage into the playoffs, we will have a grandstand finish on the final day. If Mumbai win, RCB will need to win. If MI win big, RCB might even have to think of net run rate. On the other hand, whoever wins out of RR and PBKS tomorrow - especially RR because they still have a good net run rate - will be hoping both MI and RCB lose on the last day of the league. It is going to the wire. We bid farewell with that.

Virat Kohli is down on his knees in celebration as he clears deep midwicket, who is running back and not on the fence, to bring up a stunning hundred. He is out next ball, but Kohli has all but sealed a chase for RCB. An even 100 off 63 balls. RCB need just 15 off 13 balls. You can't wipe that smile off Kohli's face.

Virat Kohli has been brutal in the middle overs, and has pulled away from Faf du Plessis. There was a time when du Plessis was 63, and Kohli 65, but in the time that du Plessis has scored three runs, Kohli has taken 26. The century is well and truly on. He needs nine out of 25 runs to get there. Sensational hitting in the middle overs. You wonder what would Kohli be if he let himself go and not put such a high price on his wicket. Today the net run rate demands have freed him up, and the result has been glorious.

With their some grip in the pitch, overs 10, 11 and 12 went for just 18 runs. There was some hope for SRH there, but just like that both Kohli and du Plessis turned it around with nine and 15 off the next two overs. They are matching each other shot for shot. Now they need just 46 off 34.

Faf du Plessis gets there in 34 balls. It is his eighth fifty this IPL, and third consecutive one. Two balls later Virat Kohli brings up his seventh of this IPL with a ferocious pull off Glenn Phillips. It ends a two-over run without a boundary. RCB 105 for 0 in 11.3 overs.

Mayank Dagar picks up a screamer at deep midwicket, diving low to his right, but the umpires can check the height on the replay because there is a dismissal involved. If this is over the shoulder, it will be the second bouncer of the over. And replays show it is a smidgeon above the shoulder, and isntead of celebrating a maiden IPL wicket, Reddy has to bowl a free hit. RCB have everything going for them: 90 for in nine overs.

Perhaps it is the pitch, perhaps it is the NRR demand, perhaps it is the lack of threatening spin bowlers in the SRH ranks, but Virat Kohli has been full of intent even after the powerplay. He is walking at the bowlers, he is playing balls in the air, and he is now 46 off 28. RCB 88 for 0 in 8.3 overs.

The way the ball is pinging off the bat, it is clear what a batting beauty this pitch is. Perhaps there is some dew that has quickened it up, but still it never looked a pitch where the rest of the batters should combine to score 76 off 69 balls when Heinrich Klaasen scored a hundred off 49 balls.

RCB are 59 for 0 in five overs. Du Plessis 30 off 13, Kohli 28 off 17. This is RCB's joint-fastest fifty this year.

Stop the press. Glenn Phillips has made an error in the field. To be fair to him, it is not an easy catch at deep forward square leg, but Phillips has got under it, but possibly got into a bad position where he has to catch it sideways. Du Plessis has joined Kohli in the fireowrks with three successive boundaries off Kartik Tyagi. They are 39 for 0 in 3.3 overs.

Virat Kohli has come out with lot of intent, hitting fours off the first two balls he faces, and then taking Abhishek Sharma down in the second over. RCB 20 for 0 in two overs; Kohli 17 off 10.

Mohammed Siraj concedes just four off the last over to go with a seven-run 18th over, bowled by Wayne Parnell. Having said that, it has been Heinrich Klaasen's evening. Just the fact that they didn't have enough overs of fast bowlers for the death is down to Klaasen forcing them to bowl their quicks sooner than they would have wanted to. Klaasen has scored 104 off 51, others 76 off 69. The final score is 186.

Klaasen says the pitch was slower than the pitches they have been playing on. "I would love to say we are a little bit above-par, but they have got a great batting unit and we will have to be disciplined," Klaasen says.

A brief lull - six straight singles - thanks largely to good balls from Wayne Parnell has been followed with a big six after charging down and sending Harshal Patel's slower ball over long-on. That takes him to 103 off 49 balls, the second-quickest century for SRH. What a special innings with 92% control.

Even when Harshal gets Klaasen two balls later with a beguiling slower-ball yorker, his first reaction is to look back and applaud Klaasen. The Hyderabad crowd stands up for him. Probably won over now. SRH 178 for in 18.5 overs.

Arguably the best spin hitter in this IPL is 79 off 40. The other batter is getting into the act. And RCB go to a left-arm spinner at the start of the death overs. Immediately Heinrich Klaasen puts him in the stands back over his head twice in a row. Brook then picks up the pieces last ball. It's 160 for 3 in 17 overs.

To be fair to RCB, they have to bowl spin for one over somewhere. Parnell, Siraj and Harshal have one over each left.

Harry Brook and Heinrich Klaasen have both laid into Karn in the 15th over to take the score to 133 for 3.

Karn Sharma's over, the 11th of the innings, summed up the challenge of bowling to Heinrich Klaasen. Anything slightly short, anything slightly slow, and he goes back and punishes it square. And then you are forced to overpitch to deny him back-foot runs, and he isn quick to loft you off the front foot for a straight six into the sigh screen. The fifty has come up off 24 balls, and has two sixes and six fours in it. SRH 94 for 2 in 11.

I know it will sound rude but it is a blessing in disguise that SRH lost their openers when they did. Their best batter is hardly getting to bat, and those two wickets brought in Heinrich Klaasen early. The first ball he faced, he showed a forward press, and rocked back to cash in on the consequent shorter delivery with a punch past cover. He has been lethal on anything dropped short by the spinners, but he has also dispatched Harshal Patel. Six fours and a six in his 18 balls at the time of the first time-out. He has reached 37, SRH 76 for 2 in nine overs.

A short wide loosener hit straight to cover-point. A sweep straight to short fine leg. And Michael Bracewell has sent back the openers just like that. Having said that, there is turn in. the surface. And also Heinrich Klaasen has punched the first ball he faced for four.

The crowd in Hyderabad is wild, the loudest it has been this IPL, but they are all supporting RCB. When they saw Faf du Plessis had won the toss, they cheered so loudly the RCB captain had to wait for a few seconds to announce what they had chosen to do. And since then random R-c-B chants are going around. I wonder what the reason is: Hyderabadi Mohammed Siraj in RCB, Virat Kohli in RCB or SRH's results this year.

SRH are batting as if disoriented. They are 11 for 0 in three overs having survived a couple of chances.

Faf du Plessis has won the toss, and RCB will be chasing. That's because they have encountered dew on the last two evenings when training. A huge cheer went up among the crowd when RCB won the toss.

Aiden Markram would have w3anted to bowl himself. SRH have made two changes, which we are trying to confirm quickly. Nitish Kumar Reddy has received his cap. So he is one change.

Sunrisers Hyderabad Team Abhishek Sharma, RA Tripathi, AK Markram*, H Klaasen†, HC Brook, GD Phillips, Abdul Samad, B Kumar, Kartik Tyagi, MJ Dagar, K Nitish Kumar Reddy

RCB Team V Kohli, F du Plessis*, GJ Maxwell, MK Lomror, MG Bracewell, Anuj Rawat†, Shahbaz Ahmed, HV Patel, WD Parnell, KV Sharma, Mohammed Siraj

SRH subs Mayank Markande, T Natarajan, Vivrant Sharma, Sanvir Singh, Akeal Hosein

RCB subs Dinesh Karthik, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Himanshu Sharma, Suyash Prabhudesai, Kedar Jadhav