Fixture: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru, IPL 2026. Date/Time: Friday, May 22, 7:30 PM IST at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. Stakes: Final league game for both. Winner likely takes top-two finish and Qualifier 1 spot. GT are second on the points table with an NRR of +0.695. For SRH to finish in the top two, while batting first, they will need to defeat RCB by 88 runs if they score 220 or by 87 runs if they score 200. If they're chasing, say, 150, SRH will need to win in around 11.1 to 11.3 overs. If they manage to achieve this, they will better RCB's NRR and SRH and GT will finish top two. If not, RCB and GT will cement the top two spots. Qualifier 1 advantage: Top-two teams get two shots at the final. Win Qualifier 1 = direct entry to final. Lose = play Qualifier 2 “High-flying”: RCB became first team to qualify after beating PBKS. SRH qualified after 5-wicket win vs CSK. RCB captain Rajat Patidar missed their last game against Punjab Kings (PBKS) with an injury. Director of cricket Mo Bobat has confirmed Patidar will play. "Rajat's good to go. We were cautious and didn't take any risks with him. We thought we'd give him a little bit longer to recover and rest, but he's here, he's practicing and he's good to go." Bottom line: SRH need a win to control their top-two destiny. RCB need a win to lock 1st place. If RCB win, they finish 1st and GT/SRH fight for 2nd. For 11 seasons, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the face of SRH. He was the Purple Cap winner with them in 2016 - the same year SRH won the IPL - and 2017 and still comfortably leads the all-time wickets charts for SRH (157). In the opposition team now, Bhuvneshwar returns to Hyderabad and to a venue he knows well. He might be 36, but he's still ruling the wickets columns, still getting the new ball to talk, still landing the yorkers at the death. He is leading the Purple Cap table with 24 wickets, while his economy rates of 6.71 in the powerplay and 8.8 at the death also stand out. Pitch No. 2 will be used for the SRH-RCB clash in Hyderabad. Historically, this is one of the highest-scoring surfaces at the venue, and with both teams bristling with hard hitters, runs and more runs are likely to flow. On the last two occasions this surface was used in IPL 2026, SRH scored 242 for 2 against Delhi Capitals and 234 for 4 against Punjab Kings, winning both games batting first. The temperature is expected to be in the late 30s on the Celsius scale with no chance of rain.