Punjab Kings defeated Royal Challengers by five wickets in Bengaluru and moved to second position in the IPL 2025 points table. RCB remain winless at home.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) are an anomaly in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. They came to the home game against Punjab Kings with a lopsided record – four wins from four away matches and two defeats in two home matches. Rain, toss and the playing conditions – everything went against RCB on Friday and the losing streak at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium extended to three matches.
Tim David | Player of the Match: It didn’t feel so easy ( about batting on that deck). I don’t know what to say. I think definitely boys batting up communicated about the conditions back down to me. I was getting a chance to see what the pitch was doing. The practice pitches have been similar. Tried to find a method to play in these conditions. Our coaching staff and management have built the squad for a certain reason. I am very pleased and I feel like am batting well at the moment. I can contribute but trust the coaches to put where I can score. If I get an opportunity to bat up, I will look to contribute for my team. At times when you are trying too hard, it doesn’t come off. The challenge here at times in Bangalore has been to bat with the bowlers and string up a partnership. Tonight was difficult. You had to manage risks a little bit. We have been faced with different conditions in each match we have played so far. Tonight there was rain and the pitch was under covers and it was difficult to know how the pitch would play. We haven’t played well at home. We need to find a template to find a way and win a couple of games. We will have to regroup quickly as we will play Punjab.
RCB – 95/9 | Tim David – 50 not out | Others – 44 RCB vs PBKS
After waiting for two hours due to rain, Punjab Kings opted to bowl first after winning the toss. Three RCB batters – Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar and Tim David – hit a four off the first ball they faced, yet only two batters reached double figures for the home side.
The highest partnership of 32 not out in the RCB innings came for the final wicket. Notably, five of RCB’s top six batters got out for less than five runs. The host batters couldn’t adjust to the bounce of the pitch, which was covered for longer period due to rain. The sluggish outfield made matters worse.
Virat Kohli didn’t face a single ball in the first two overs of the innings, and soon perished for just a run. Liam Livingstone got out to a wild shot for the third consecutive time. Tim David (50 not out off 26) smashed his maiden IPL fifty and gave some respectability to the RCB innings. The Australian finisher smashed hat-trick sixes off Harpreet Brar in the 20th over.
All-round Punjab Kings
Shreyas Iyer used five bowlers, and all of them took at least one wicket each. Arshdeep Singh dismissed the RCB openers – Salt and Kohli. Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma while Marco Jansen accounted for Krunal Pandya and impact substitute Manoj Bhandage.
Harpreet Brar took the wickets of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal as Punjab Kings restricted their opponents to 95/9. In reply, Punjab Kings openers Priyansh Arya (16) and Prabhsimran Singh (13) didn’t score much. But in the context of the game, their quick start eased out the nerves.
Josh Hazlewood (3/14) briefly threatened to deliver an unlikely RCB win, dismissing Shreyas Iyer and Josh Inglis in the same over. The Australian’s height allowed him to generate steep bounce from the pitch. Nehal Wadhera’s (33 not out off 19 balls) brave hitting took the visitors to a five-wicket victory with 11 balls to spare.
With this win, Punjab Kings rose from fourth to second spot in the points table. The Shreyas Iyer-led side are on level with Delhi capitals at 10 points. Delhi Capitals are on top owing to net-run rate.
What’s next for RCB & Punjab Kings?
Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings face each other again on Sunday (April 20) afternoon in New Chandigarh.Almost at the half-way mark of the tournament and teams would not take anything but a win! RCB have been handed their third loss. They were undone a little today by the conditions as well. But that’s how it is in a long tournament, it would even out. Punjab have picked up their 5th win and have 10 points from 7 games. Delhi and Punjab look almost certain to make it to the next round. Or are there more twists? RCB have been a little brittle at home. The conditions have mostly back fired for them. The conditions they should know like the back of their hand have only handed them ignominy. But they are a good side and will look to bounce back. We will be back soon as well. Till then our team of Pradeep Krishnamurthy, Nikhil Jadhav, Siva and Kumar Abhisekh Das bids you bye bye. Take care…
Most defeats at a venue in the IPL
46 – RCB at Bengaluru*
45 – DC at Delhi
38 – KKR at Kolkata
34 – MI at Wankhede
30 – PBKS at Mohali