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As has been a worrying trend in recent times, Virat Kohli fans once again flocked to the comments section of SRH and Australia batsman Travis Head after a spat broke out between the two during the IPL 2026 clash on Friday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 55 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Friday. This was the last league stage game for both teams.
RCB regains top position despite 55-run defeat
Heading into this game, Sunrisers Hyderabad needed a win by around 90 runs to join Gujarat Titans in Qualifier 1 by finishing in the top two spots on the points table.
SRH gave their best performance with their aggressive intent on the flat Hyderabad pitch. Abhishek Sharma scored 56 runs in just 22 balls, Player of the Match Ishan Kishan scored 79 runs in 46 balls and Heinrich Klaasen scored 51 runs in 24 balls.
Nitish Kumar Reddy also scored unbeaten 29 runs in just 12 balls to take SRH to 255 runs. RCB needed to score 166 runs to avoid dropping out of the top two and 177 runs to remain on top of the points table despite losing the match.
Although Virat Kohli had a quiet day, Venkatesh Iyer kept the pace going in the powerplay and scored 44 runs in just 19 balls. SRH’s pace battery of Pat Cummins, Ishan Malinga and Saqib Hussain executed their slower balls perfectly to stop the RCB batsmen.
RCB skipper Rajat Patidar scored a brilliant half-century while Krunal Pandya also scored an unbeaten 41 as RCB ended their 20 overs at 200/4 and topped the points table.
RCB is now the third defending champion team to finish first in the points table in the IPL season.
Virat Kohli and Travis Head controversy
The controversy erupted on Friday during RCB’s chase of 255 runs. While Kohli was batting, he and Travis Head were seen exchanging some words early in the innings.
Their war of words continued till the fourth over when Virat Kohli’s opening partner Venkatesh Iyer hit 23 runs off the bowling of left-arm wrist spinner Shivang Kumar. When Kohli became the victim of Saqib Hussain in the sixth over of the innings, it seemed that Head had some more words for him.
At the end of the match, Kohli was reportedly seen fuming in the dugout over the incident. After the match, Kohli shook hands with most of the Sunrisers team but notably ignored Head.
In Indian cricket, it has almost become a trend for fans of big players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni to spam Instagram comments of any player who seems to surpass the ‘Big Three’.
The same happened with Travis Head, many Kohli fans made general comments in favor of Virat Kohli, as they have done with many others before. Some comments seemed to be awash in abuse, while others were hitting out at Kohli fans for the apparent spam.
The incident has sparked many debates on social media not only on Kohli’s behavior of ignoring handshakes but also on the behavior of some fan groups who might behave like this with any other cricketer.
Also read: Travis Head’s first reaction after handshake controversy with Virat Kohli goes viral
Next match of RCB and SRH
After securing the top position in the points table, Royal Challengers Bangalore will face Gujarat Titans in the first qualifier. This match will be held on 26th May at HPCA Stadium, Dharamshala.
The winner will get a direct entry to the final to be held at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on May 31. The loser will get another chance to qualify for the final in the second qualifier. Qualifier 2 will be held in Maharaja Yadvendra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur on 29 May.
Sunrisers Hyderabad finished third and will play the eliminator on May 27 in Mullanpur. SRH do not know their opponents for that encounter yet. The winner of the Eliminator will face the loser of Qualifier 1 in Qualifier 2. After this the final will be between the winner of Qualifier 1 and Qualifier 2.
