Courtesy: BCCI/IPL
Cometh the hour, cometh the RCB resources and as seen in the end, cometh the win that was so desperately and keenly craved! And that too, for a good 18 long years. If you notice, may legendary and iconic cricketers had joined RCB on the winning mission but waned out trying. Think of heroes like The Wall, Dravid and the King Kallis back then.
Then came the era of the iconic AB De Villiers and the Universe Boss, Chris Gayle. At one point, the RCB even had Watson, a champion cricketer, and forget not, KL Rahul. But even then they were left bereft of an IPL crown.
At all these times, one man kept up the fight and remained a recurring factor, a huge draw, possibly the biggest: Virat Kohli. This win, therefore, was for him, as fans and observers admit.
However, the self effacing batting demigod admitted, the win is for the team and for the fans. But then, what possible reasons on the big match day actually led to victory? Who paved the way for the IPL 2025 title triumph?
Krunal Pandya's clutch performance
A few hours after the much desperately sought final title win and a first for his new IPL franchise, Krunal Pandya's brother, Hardik expressed his unbridled joy for his brother's success, wishing him well on X whilst alluding to the fact that he was "So happy for you brother. Well done."
While he might not be up there in terms of pure popularity as is his brother, Hardik Pandya, Krunal, did ultimately, play a mega part in the RCB final win. It was a fact that was rightly and closely underlined by his famous teammate, Virat Kohli.
An explosive, wicket taking, dangerous spell in the end, Pandya was the chief architect of a spell that led to 17 runs from his 4 overs and culminated in 2 big wickets. These being the big wickets of the dangerous Prabhsimran Singh, who was found struggling for timing and then, not too late in the day, that of Aussie Inglis. The latter was looking threatening enough to cause damage to RCB but it was never to be.
At the end of the day, Krunal, so often underrated, saved the day as a bowler.
Bowlers turning the game around
The likes of Romario Shepherd, B. Kumar and Krunal Pandya emerged as the jubilant and ultimately effective trinity that changed the nature of the game in RCB's favour and this happened when the team really needed it.
After it was found out that Hazlewood wasn't perhaps at his best on the big final day, captain Patidar really, it must be said, introduced the Windies bowler and the other two experienced Indian campaigners at the right time.
Resultantly, the trinity of Romario, Kumar and Pandya took half of all PBKS wickets that fell.
The Guyanese fast bowler proved to be one with the golden arm as he took the prized wicket of Iyer, inducing a faint edge on a rising delivery bowled meticulously around the off.
Josh Inglis found his match in Pandya, slow and effective to the core and bowling in good rhythm, and seldom conceding wasteful runs.
Thanks to excellent ground catching in the crucial overs, Bhuvneshwar too joined in, and took the decisive wicket of Wadhera, who had proven to be so destructive against Mumbai just a few days earlier. That catch by Krunal Pandya was also a game changer in itself.
Playing as one unit
By the looks if it, it could be argued that the batters didn't really click as not even a single fifty came to the fore. But if you were to observe closely upon some consideration and careful observation, then you'd find that each of RCB's valiant middle order chipped in and just about at the right time. Starting with Agarwal, whose brilliant six at a time where the runs weren't really coming eased the tension. He made another fluent 24 off 18 from #3. Then, came the turn of the skipper himself, Patidar who supported Virat well and handled the challenging spin of Chahal and company. His 26 off 16 provided the necessary rhythm to an otherwise sluggish rate of scoring.
Furthermore, Jitesh Sharma, the brave keeper batter chipped in when it seemd the chips were down. In scoring 24 off just 10, he played a blinder, as one might argue.
Meanwhile, at all these times, Kohli had stayed at one hend, holding the fort and putting his useful experience into play.
While bowling, the spinners and medium pacers made headways where it seemed there were none and even as the experinced lanky bowler Hazlewood seemed a bit out of touch, Pandya and Shepherd kept up the pressure when really needed from an RCB point of view.
In all, the final was won thanks to a perfect orchestration of team effort. And that's glorious really for it's not always about one particular individual.
