Virat Kohli Was in focus on Friday. Not only for his batting, but also due to an on-field altercation with Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Travis Head. Tempers rose while Royal Challengers Bengaluru chased a 256-run target against SRH in Hyderabad. Kohli was seen giving a piece of his mind to Head, who just smiled. It was not clear how the banter started. Kohli had just hit two boundaries when the incident happened. Kohli got out on 11, and later RCB lost the match by 55 runs. Despite that, RCB pipped SRH to seal the top spot in the IPL 2026 league phase.
Tensions rise in high voltage clash#TATAIPL Race to Playoffs 2026 #SRHvRCB | LIVE NOW https://t.co/52qPTW2gSO pic.twitter.com/JOiWaxNW6T
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) May 22, 2026
After the match, as the players lined up, Head offered Kohli a handshake, but the RCB great royally ignored him and looked beyond. Kohli shook hands with the player before Head and even Ishan Kishanwho came after Head. The Australian batsman, who opens for SRH, could be seen looking at Kohli as he walked past him.
Virat Kohli ignored Travis Head when he tried to shake hands with him after the match #SRHvsRCB pic.twitter.com/urAY79pYQ0
— Indian Cricket (@IPL2025Auction) May 22, 2026
Come on Virat Kohli Bhai If he couldn’t shake hands with Travis Head, the poor guy would have been lucky
Virat Kohli is very angry, it seems he will destroy in the next match. pic.twitter.com/R1BwkuM24x— Prem Kumar (@cbhushanamazon) May 22, 2026
Sunrisers Hyderabad maintained their now familiar hell-for-leather template, but even a thumping 55-run victory couldn’t prevent Royal Challengers Bengaluru from topping the points table at the end of their IPL league stage engagement here on Friday.
Abhishek Sharma‘s bat swing, Ishan Kishan’s daredevilry and Heinrich Klaasen‘s brute muscularity took SRH to a meaty total of 255 for 4.
For RCB, the primary target was to score 166 to finish in the top two and ensure two shots at qualifying for the IPL final, and they did that with ease despite losing the contest by a big margin. They finished on 200 for 4.
RCB (NRR +0.783), thus, topped the group league stage, with Gujarat Titans (NRR +0.695) and SRH (NRR +0.524) finishing second and third respectively, despite all three teams getting 18 points apiece.
The chase was always out of the question, even as Venkatesh Iyer (44 off 19 balls) provided a solid start. Virat Kohli (15 off 11 balls) and Devdutt Padikkal (21 off 14 balls) didn’t get too many.
Once RCB understood that they couldn’t win the match, veterans Rajat Patidar (56 off 39 balls) and Krunal Pandya (41 not out off 31 balls) concentrated on the ‘Magic Figure’ of 166 with an 84-run stand.
Once Patidar flayed Pat Cummins over deep point for a six, RCB ensured a top-two finish. He was out at the team score of 178, which was required to finish on top of the table.
With PTI inputs
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