Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL
On Tuesday, June 3, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) won their first-ever Indian Premier League (IPL) title after a 17-year long wait, defeating Punjab Kings (PBKS) by six runs in the final of the 2025 edition at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. After posting a competitive total of 190/9 on the board, RCB bowlers did enough despite a late flurry of boundaries from Shashank Singh, to secure the first major trophy for the franchise in men’s cricket.
For the unversed, after winning the toss, Shreyas Iyer, the captain of PBKS, decided to bat first, and they got early reward with Kyle Jamieson taking the wicket of dangerous Phil Salt in the second over of the RCB. Virat Kohli took the role of anchoring the innings, while the likes of Mayank Agarwal and Rajat Patidar took the attack to the PBKS bowlers in their innings, scoring quick-fire 20s, but still the RCB innings were a bit behind the eight ball.
When Liam Livingstone was relatively new to the crease, Virat Kohli lost his wicket against the run of play for 43 runs in 35 balls, an innings which had just three fours, while trying to hit a pull shot on the bowling of Azmatullah Omarzai, only to mistime it completely before the bowler took a splendid catch. The arrival of Jitesh Sharma happened just at the right time, who smashed a few lusty blows, scoring 24 off just 10 balls with two fours and two sixes, while Romario Shepherd and Liam Livingstone chipped-in with boundaries of their own as well.
After posting a competitive total of 190 runs in their allotted 20 overs, RCB faced up against in-form PBKS opening duo of Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh, who shared a 43-run stand in five overs. Priyansh Arya was dismissed for 24 runs in 19 balls with four fours in his innings after Phil Salt took a stunning boundary rope catch on the bowling of Josh Hazlewood.
Josh Inglis came out all guns blazing in the IPL 2025 final, finding boundaries regularly on his way to reaching 39 runs in 23 balls with one four and four sixes, but during this time, Prabhsimran Singh was out in the 20s before Shreyas Iyer lost his wicket on the second ball for one-run, nicking off through to Jitesh Sharma on the bowling of Romario Shepherd.
Nehal Wadhera and Shashank Singh shared a 38-run stand for the fifth wicket despite starting slow in their innings, but then Bhuvneshwar Kumar broke their partnership and removed Marcus Stoinis from the crease on his second ball of the innings. Azmatullah Omarzai was dismissed cheaply on the bowling of Yash Dayal, putting RCB in complete control of the match, needing to defend 45 runs in 20 balls with just three wickets in hand of PBKS.
Shashank Singh kept the hopes of Punjab alive till the final over of the match, needing 29 runs to secure an unlikely win, but Josh Hazlewood ensured that RCB won the match with six runs in the bank.
