Do away with all the memes. All the jokes. For the first time in 18 years of the Indian Premier League, RCB are CHAMPIONS. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru defended 190 against an in-form Punjab Kings to end the franchise’s long, agonising and painful wait for a maiden IPL win. Krunal Pandya‘s splendid show of 2/17 from four overs knocked the stuffing out of PBKS’ batters, allowing the one-and-only Virat Kohli to realise his dream of what it feels like to have all premier trophies in his cabinet. Kohli was already a World Cup winner, a World T20 champion, and a Champions Trophy holder. He will now wake up on June 4, 2025, as an IPL champion.
FULL SCORBOARD
For RCB, legends have come and gone. Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Daniel Vettori and even Kohli himself tried their best but couldn’t get RCB over the line. Rajat Patidar, 32, in his first year as captain, outshone them all, cementing his place in the RCB history books.
At a venue where 200-run targets have been chaseable without breaking much sweat, RCB must get all the credit in the world for defending a total 10 runs short of. Given the start Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya provided Punjab, the target did not look threatening at all. But once Patidar rolled the dice on his spinners, the wheels began to come off. From 72/1 in the ninth over, PBKS slipped to 98/4 in less than four overs, with Krunal leading the charge.
Punjab Kings launched their chase with confidence, as openers Priyansh and Prabhsimran pounced on loose deliveries. Arya set the tone with a boundary off Bhuvneshwar Kumar‘s first over, while Prabhsimran capped it with a towering six. Yash Dayal’s second over proved expensive, leaking runs with a fortunate boundary and a leg-bye four. Josh Hazlewood tightened things up in the third over, but the momentum remained with PBKS. The Aussie pacer struck in the fifth over, removing Arya, and Bhuvneshwar’s economical fourth over kept the run rate in check. By the end of the powerplay, Inglis injected aggression with a six in the sixth over, though RCB squandered a review.