SRH hammer RCB as Kohli-Head handshake snub goes viral

One skipped handshake can travel faster than a 100-metre six in the IPL.

That is what happened in Hyderabad on Friday night, May 22, when Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 55 runs. The scorecard said 255 for 4 against a tired bowling attack. The internet, naturally, chased Virat Kohli and Travis Head.

For fans, this was classic IPL theatre. Big runs, bruised egos, viral clips, and enough numbers to keep statisticians awake.

Hyderabad turn batting into a warning

Hyderabad did not just win. They sent another reminder that 200 is no longer a safe IPL number.

Their 255 for 4 was their 9th 200-plus total this season. No IPL team has crossed 200 more often in one season. Gujarat Titans had reached 8 such scores in 2025.

That tells you where this league is heading. Batters now treat the powerplay like a launchpad. Bowlers get 2 bad balls, sometimes only 1, before the over breaks open.

Abhishek Sharma set that tone early. He opened his account with a six over long-off against Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He finished with 56 off 22 balls, including 5 sixes.

That took Abhishek to 43 sixes this season. Among Indians in one IPL season, only Vaibhav Suryavanshi has more this year, with 53.

Ishan Kishan then added the polish with 79. Against Bengaluru, this has become a habit. Since 2024, he has now hit 4 straight IPL fifties against them.

Kohli and Head grab the cameras

The Kohli-Head moment came during Bengaluru’s chase, when Venkatesh Iyer was swinging hard.

Kohli, standing at the non-striker’s end, appeared to gesture towards Head. Commentators read it as a playful challenge, asking him to bowl off-spin. The mood looked half-joke, half-needle.

That is often where Kohli operates best. He turns routine phases into contests inside contests. Sometimes, that lifts his team. Sometimes, it becomes the main story.

The clip got sharper when Kohli appeared to wave Head away during another exchange. Both players smiled at points, but Kohli’s body language carried its usual edge.

After the match, the handshake line added fuel. Video clips showed Head offering his hand as Kohli walked past without shaking it. In IPL season, that is enough for a full-day debate.

Was it serious? Only the players know. But fans understand body language. They have watched enough cricket to know when a smile still carries heat.

Bengaluru lose, but stay top

Bengaluru’s chase never matched Hyderabad’s pace, even with Kohli and Venkatesh putting on 60.

Kohli’s role in that stand still carried a major T20 number. He became part of a 50-run partnership for the 211th time in T20 cricket. That pushed him past Alex Hales, who had 210.

It is a quietly huge record. T20 cricket often celebrates strike rates and sixes. But repeated 50-run stands show something else, control under pressure.

Bengaluru, though, had suffered too much damage with the ball. Bhuvneshwar gave away 51 runs from his 4 overs. That put him level with Mohammed Shami for the most IPL innings conceding 50-plus runs in a full quota, at 9 each.

Three Bengaluru bowlers conceded 50 or more. That has become a familiar Hyderabad-caused wound. Similar heavy spells have appeared against them in recent seasons.

For a bowler, such nights are brutal. One missed yorker becomes a boundary. One slower ball sits up. By the 16th over, even good plans look helpless.

Still, Bengaluru remained top after the defeat. Their league position survived the beating. Their first qualifier will now be against Gujarat Titans.

Klaasen deepens Hyderabad’s middle order

Heinrich Klaasen’s 51 was not the loudest innings of the night. It may still be one of the most important signals.

Klaasen has now scored 606 runs this season while batting at No. 4 or lower. That is the highest such tally in an IPL season. He moved past Rishabh Pant’s 579 from 2018.

This matters because top-order runs are easier to plan around. Middle-order runs demand a different skill. You enter with 8 overs left, or 5, or after a collapse.

Klaasen has also made 6 scores of 50 or more this season from No. 4 or lower. That puts him level with Pant in 2018 and Glenn Maxwell in 2021.

For Hyderabad, this is gold. Abhishek can attack early. Ishan can dominate matchups. Klaasen can still make the innings explode late.

Nitish Kumar Reddy added another sharp moment. He hit his first 2 balls for sixes. For Hyderabad, only Rashid Khan in 2018 and Pat Cummins in 2025 had done that before.

That is the Hyderabad template now. They do not wait for one superstar. They keep sending hitters until the fielding side runs out of answers.

Records hide the real pressure

The scorecard will remember Hyderabad’s 255 for 4 and Bengaluru’s 55-run defeat.

But the match also showed the mental pressure of modern IPL cricket. A dropped catch, like Venkatesh letting off Abhishek on 25, can change an evening. Abhishek added quick damage after that chance.

For Indian fans, these moments are not small. They decide playoff paths, selection chatter, and social media storms by midnight.

Hyderabad climbed to third with the win. Bengaluru stayed first, but their bowling will face hard questions before the qualifier. A top finish looks good only if the attack can survive nights like this.

The Kohli-Head episode will keep circulating because it has stars, spice, and a missed handshake. But the deeper story is simpler. Hyderabad have built a batting machine that keeps forcing opponents into panic. Bengaluru now have a few days to prove this was a bad night, not a warning sign.