Rajat Patidar admitted there were “too many runs” on the board as Sunrisers Hyderabad piled on 255/4 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their IPL 2026 league stage clash on Friday.Thanks to half-centuries from Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Henrik Klaasen, SRH put up a huge total after captain Pete Cummins opted to bat first at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.SRH eventually won the match by 55 runs, but the result was not enough for them to finish in the top two. Both teams ended the league stage with 18 points.RCB needed at least 166 runs to stay ahead of SRH on net run rate even in defeat, and they managed to do so by finishing at 200/4.Despite the loss, RCB topped the table with a net run rate of 0.783, ahead of Gujarat Titans, who also had 18 points but a lower net run rate of 0.695. SRH finished the league stage in third place.RCB started aggressively through their new opening pair of Venkatesh Iyer and Virat Kohli, who added 60 runs in just 27 balls.After both batsmen were dismissed in the 14-run gap, Devdutt Padikal continued the onslaught before being caught in the deep off Ishan Malinga.Speaking after the match, Patidar said that SRH’s batting and bowling made the difference.“Obviously, I think their top five batsmen played really well, and they just dominated the first innings.”Asked if there were too many runs on the board, Patidar said: “The top priority was to be at the top, but I think, there were too many runs in the first innings. I think 255 is a good score on that wicket. And I think their five bowlers did the slow bouncers and the yorkers well.”“The slow bouncer was catching a bit, but I think the way … their strength is slow bouncers and yorkers, they did very well.”When asked if it was easy to hit slow bouncers, Patidar said, “Obviously, Hyderabad, I think it’s a good wicket, but when you start talking slow bouncers, slow in the wicket, I think it’s really difficult for a batsman to score runs.”
