After 18 long years of heartbreak, memes, and the eternal chant of “Ee Sala Cup Namde,” the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have finally done it! On a balmy June evening at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, RCB clinched their first-ever IPL title, defeating Punjab Kings (PBKS) in a nail-biting final that had fans on the edge of their seats. We breakdown the IPL match highlights for RCB vs PBKS, highlighting the performance of individual players.
This victory wasn’t just about lifting a trophy; it was about silencing the doubters, rewarding the loyal fans, and, most importantly, giving Virat Kohli the silverware that had eluded him for so long. Kohli, who has been the face of RCB for over a decade, played a pivotal role throughout the season, but probably didn’t quite rise to the occasion in the final, although it didn’t matter, like it didn’t for Sachin Tendulkar in 2011, as the teammates stepped up to gift him a well-deserved trophy.
The final was a rollercoaster. RCB posted a competitive total of 190/9, thanks to Kohli’s steady 43 and a late surge from Jitesh Sharma. PBKS, in response, started strong but faltered in the middle overs, with RCB’s bowlers tightening the screws. The turning point came when Shreyas Iyer, PBKS’s captain and top scorer of the season, was dismissed for just 1, leading to a collapse that RCB capitalized on .
The celebrations were electric. Kohli’s iconic leap after Iyer’s dismissal went viral. Fans in Bengaluru are surely erupting in joy, streets turning into seas of red and gold. Even British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a self-proclaimed RCB fan, was at the venue to express his elation.
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In the end, this wasn’t just a win; it was a redemption story, a celebration of unwavering fandom, but also about how tactical planning and acumen rarely fail in big tournaments. RCB’s journey from perennial underachievers to champions will be remembered, but so will the role of Andy Flower and his support staff that played a pivotal role in the background.
That’s for later though, as we break down this RCB win for the ages.
If one word could describe both innings for Punjab Kings, it would be ‘template’. It came out perfectly in the bowling innings when that template, one that was so successful against Mumbai Indians, was stuck to immaculately. In the second innings, the batting one, they veered away from that ‘template’ as the openers got off to shaky starts and the skipper fell to an innocuous delivery.
Punjab Kings didn’t make the most fluent of starts to their IPL 2025 final chase. Priyansh Arya looked to manufacture momentum, often throwing his hands at length deliveries, and succeeding at times. Despite surviving multiple edges and miscued pulls, Arya’s luck eventually ran out on 24 off 19 balls when he whipped Josh Hazlewood off his hips and found Phil Salt, who pulled off a sensational juggling catch on the boundary.
Prabhsimran Singh, meanwhile, struggled to find any rhythm. He scored a laboured 26 off 22 balls after being dropped once by Romario Shepherd, and was visibly frustrated trying to force shots. His innings ended when he reached for a wide, slower ball from Krunal Pandya and sliced it tamely to point. His wicket left PBKS at 72 for 2 in the ninth over.
Big-match pressure caught up with Shreyas Iyer, just as it did in the 2023 World Cup final at the same venue. Fresh off a powerful semi-final performance, Iyer’s stay was cut short early once again. He tried to cut a back-of-a-length delivery from Romario Shepherd but edged it behind, departing for a single-figure score.
For a brief period, Josh Inglis looked like he might change the tone of the chase. He pulled a wrong’un from Suyash Sharma into the stands, showcasing his sharp reflexes and compact footwork. Inglis had started to look threatening before he tried to go big again, stepping out to Krunal Pandya only to mistime the lofted shot and hole out to long-on. His departure came just when PBKS needed acceleration and further underlined Krunal’s growing influence.
In an IPL final déjà vu, Krunal Pandya once again delivered on the biggest stage. While known for his batting heroics in a previous IPL final, this time it was the ball that made him a match-turner. Bowling flat and quick, Krunal applied pressure with accuracy and clever changes of pace. His dismissal of Prabhsimran with a slower, wide delivery and then Inglis with flight and dip gave RCB a stronghold over the match. He finished with exceptional figures of 2 for 17 in four overs, applying a chokehold on the scoring in the middle phase.
Josh Hazlewood was instrumental at the top, setting the tone for RCB’s defense. Though not heavily rewarded in the wickets column early on, he maintained disciplined lines and extracted awkward bounce. His persistence paid off with the wicket of Priyansh Arya, and he kept the pressure tight from his end — especially on a surface that offered tennis-ball bounce when dug in short. But it came apart later from Hazlewood when Shashank Singh smashed him for two sixes in the 16th over that leaked 17 runs.
Matthew Hayden, on air, dubbed it the ‘Australian plan’ – Punjab Kings bowlers using the short ball and taking pace off to force batters to attack in the longer square boundaries. And it worked. More to Virat Kohli than the rest of the RCB batters, but the template was clear.
“This is very much an Australian plan,” Hayden said on air. “You see it in BBL all the time. You’ve got bigger square boundaries (like in Ahmedabad here) and down the ground is shorter. Ponting coach, James Hopes bowling coach, Brad Haddin asst coach. Three Australians in that dugout + Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis.”
Coming into the IPL 2025 final, Virat Kohli was expected to be the pillar around which the RCB innings revolves, and it did, just that it didn’t progress much. He showed very little intent early on, going on to face just 10 balls in the first 6 overs as Mayank Agarwal hogged strike. He struggled to consistently time his pull shots as PBKS stuck to a short ball plan on a pitch that had some tennis-ball bounce. Kohli scored a steady 43 off 35 balls but was eventually dismissed playing the pull shot again — a pattern Punjab Kings’ bowlers had clearly targeted.
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Phil Salt landed in Ahmedabad just this morning after taking a flight for the birth of his child after Qualifier 1. But he showed little jet lag as he began with a few crisp shots early on. Just when he looked set to take charge, he fell to Kyle Jamieson’s cleverly disguised slower ball. Salt’s wicket was the first sign that PBKS’ pace-off strategy on the two-paced Ahmedabad surface was working.
Rajat Patidar, one of RCB’s big-match performers, also couldn’t convert his start. He was undone by the change of pace from Jamieson, who stuck to a clever plan by Marcus Stoinis to out-think the RCB captain. A sequence of slow, short balls was followed by a fuller yorker-length ball that Patidar missed entirely. His dismissal at a crucial juncture dented RCB’s momentum.
Jitesh Sharma was the only RCB batter who consistently disrupted PBKS’ hard-length plan. His innovative strokeplay, using the crease and targeting the V behind the wicket, brought a quickfire 24 off 10 balls. His 36-run fifth-wicket stand in just 12 deliveries gave RCB a real shot at crossing 200 at one point.
PBKS’ death-bowling duo sealed the momentum shift. Vijaykumar Vyshak bowled a brilliant 18th over, conceding just five runs and removing Jitesh Sharma with a ball that seamed back in. Arshdeep Singh then delivered a masterclass in reverse swing, going full and straight to clean up the lower order in the final over. His three wickets in the 20th over – which cost only five runs – restricted RCB to 190 for 9 and put PBKS in the driver’s seat.
The Kiwi pacer was absolutely brilliant with his bowling plans, using his height to bang the ball into the wickets and taking pace off the ball to deny shot-makers. Like with the Qualifier 2, Jamieson used the short ball ploy very well to keep the ball away from the hitting arc of RCB batters. He finished with 3/48 as Punjab once again showcased the benefits of bowling to set plans and fields.
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