Royal Challengers Bangalore secured their table-topping finish in the Indian Premier League on Friday night, despite falling to a 55-run defeat away to Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The hosts dominated the contest and made 255 for four batting first, but couldn’t restrict RCB to the 166 needed in order to leapfrog them on net run-rate, the visitors reaching 200 for four with the pressure long-since diffused in front of a partisan home crowd.
Ishan Kishan steered the Sunrisers' ship with 79 off 46 balls, as Heinrich Klaasen (51 off 24) notched his sixth IPL half-century of a dazzling campaign after Abhishek Sharma got them off to a flying start with his 22-ball 56.
Venkatesh Iyer struck eight boundaries in his quickfire 44 to launch the response but, once he and Virat Kohli fell, the order already felt too tall.
Needing at least an 87-run win to topple the leaders, Abishek and Travis Head roared out of the blocks until the Australian had his leg stump removed by a Rasikh Salam yorker.
Abishek rode his luck en route to a 20-ball 50 and soon punted a Suyash Sharma googly into the hands of Jordan Cox at long off.
Kishan picked up where his international teammate left off, taking 31 deliveries to reach his half-century - his fourth in a row against RCB.
All the while, Klaasen was swinging cleanly in a boundary spree of his own, with opening pair Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar left feeling particularly victimised.
The pair were having a riot, propelling their side beyond 200 and their own partnership past 100 inside the 16th over.
And the score squeaked past 250 by the end of their effort, as Nitish Kumar Reddy turned on the afterburners with an unbeaten 29 from just 12 balls after Klaasen’s departure.
With a monster total to chase, there are few better sights than the legendary Kohli striding out to open the reply.
But he was left in the shade by Venkatesh, who rocket-launched his way to 44 before cuffing his 19th ball into the grateful hands of the sliding Abhishek.
It wasn’t the great man’s night and he fell for a frustrated 15, slapping straight to cover, as RCB finished an otherwise promising Powerplay 75 for two.
Eshan Malinga already had the scalp of Venkatesh and he struck another telling blow when he removed Devdutt Paddikal for 21.
The squeeze was on and 166 swiftly became the de facto target, reached in stately fashion thanks to an 84-run fourth-wicket stand between Rajat Patidar (56 off 39) and Krunal Pandya (41 not out off 31).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora, R Smaran, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins (capt), Shivang Kumar, Eshan Malinga, Sakib Hussain.
Impact replacements: Aniket Verma, Praful Hinge, Liam Livingstone, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Venkatesh Iyer, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (capt), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rasikh Salam, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood.
Impact replacements: Tim David, Kanishk Chouhan, Swapnil Singh, Abhinandan Singh, Jordan Cox.