Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) hopes of a top-2 finish ahead of the IPL 2025 playoffs suffered a dent as the franchise endured a 42-run drubbing at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow on Friday.

Despite the defeat in a high-scoring contest, RCB's stand-in skipper Jitesh Sharma said losing is a "good sign."

SRH defeated RCB after Ishan Kishan played a brilliant 48-ball 94-run knock to help his team post a mammoth 231 for 6 at the end of 20 overs. Chasing the total, RCB made a promising start, with their openers Philip Salt (62 off 32 balls) and Virat Kohli (43 off 25 balls) sharing an 80-run partnership before Harsh Dubey broke it on the sixth delivery of the seventh over by removing Kohli.

RCB then suffered a mini collapse, losing Mayank Agarwal, Rajat Patidar, and skipper Jitesh in quick succession. With RCB reeling at 173 for 4 and still in the fray to win the match, they suffered another big collapse as none of their batters thereafter could reach double figures, with Romario Shepherd dismissed for a duck and Krunal Pandya falling for 8.

Jitesh, who led the team on Friday as regular captain Rajat Patidar chose to play the match only as a specialist batter, admitted that RCB were “rusty” and lacked early intensity.

"I think it was 20-30 runs extra. They played very well. I didn't have any answers for their attack. We were rusty. The intensity was not there initially, but it's good to lose this game. In the death, we were bowling more accurately," he said post-match.

Jitesh also said the defeat will help them assess themselves before the crucial playoffs. “Sometimes losing a game is a very good sign because you can check and analyse. After this loss, we've got a setback to check things again," he said.

Asked about the extent of Tim David's injury — who braved the pain and walked out to bat despite suffering a hamstring niggle — Jitesh said, “Right now, I haven't met David because I was upset I got out,” Jitesh admitted.

Jitesh remains optimistic about the team doing well. “The positive things are that everyone’s chipping in. Losing this game was good — we are batting well. We will bounce back in a good way in the upcoming games,” he concluded.

RCB will play their final league game on May 27 against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana Stadium.