IPL 2025: Virat Kohli ends trophy drought as bowlers win first title for Royal Challengers Bengaluru

And up until the eighth over, the final was setting up for another thrilling finish before Krunal Pandya came up with a spell that changed the fate of the final and put RCB in the list of teams to win the most coveted T20 title in the world. On a pitch that didn’t show signs of slowing down, there was help for bowlers provided they mixed their lines and lengths while altering the pace. Right through this season, their bowling line-up, which is pace-heavy, has delivered the goods with Suyansh Sharma and Krunal mostly playing the support cast.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Krunal Pandya, centre, celebrates the dismissal of Punjab Kings’ Josh Inglis. (AP photos)

But on the night, it was Krunal who stood tall. Bought at the auction to provide control and defence, he cracked open the game by getting rid of Prabhsimran Singh in the ninth over, triggering the slide for Punjab. In the next over, skipper Shreyas Iyer departed to a loose stroke as RCB began smelling the title. Josh Inglis, though, was still bothering them, until Krunal came back to get rid of the Aussie in the 13th over.

Having conceded 52/1 in the Powerplay, in the middle overs, where Punjab scored 84/3, Krunal conceded only 17 runs at 4.25 giving away just a lone six.

From there on, Punjab struggled to keep pace with the required run rate even as Shashank Singh ended up with a valiant 61 off 30. After 18 seasons, captain Rajat Patidar has managed to achieve what Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli couldn’t as the franchise’s talisman sunk to his knees when the 6-run victory was sealed.

Job half-done

Between the two sides, in terms of execution, it was PBKS which did a splendid job in the first half, always keeping RCB in check. In many ways, their bowling performance, even tactically, mirrored their Qualifier II performance against Mumbai Indians. And even the RCB batting was almost similar to that of the five-time champions, where despite going at over 9 runs an over, they never gave the impression of being in full control of proceedings. On a flat deck, there were instances when RCB appeared to be caught in two minds – as they didn’t want to lose wickets while looking to boost the scoring rate and were not sure what would be a good total to defend.

Full credit to the PBKS attack for seeding those doubts in RCB’s camp. After winning the toss, they had no hesitation to bowl first as they backed their plans. Given the batting-friendly conditions, their plan was spot on, as they wanted RCB batsmen to play their attacking shots square on either side of the vast Narendra Modi Stadium.

Punjab Kings players celebrate Virat Kohli’s wicket. (Express photo by Bhupendra Rana)

With big boundaries to protect square of the wicket, any delivery that landed short or was banged into the pitch with pace taken off or cutters was going to be hard for batsmen to connect with power. Even with the new ball, Arshdeep Singh straightaway got into the plan, only for Phil Salt to spoil it for a brief while.

But, largely the plan worked for Punjab as Virat Kohli’s 43 ended up being the highest any RCB batsman scored. But it was a laboured innings, which took 35 balls and included just one boundary in the Powerplay. That sort of a knock from Kohli meant others around him had to take more risks, which brought their downfall as their No 3, 4, 5 and 6 – Mayank Agarwal, Rajat Patidar, Liam Livingstone and Jitesh Sharma – scored between 24-26 with Romario Shepherd making 17 at No 7.

Before their pacers went about putting their plans into action, it was Yuzendra Chahal who provided the second breakthrough, accounting for Agarwal. Thereafter, particularly in the middle overs, the PBKS seamers did all the damage as Kyle Jamieson, Vijayakumar Vyshak and Azmatullah Omarzai mixing up their lengths and pace. In between all of it, RCB’s middle order showed just the sort of intent that was needed to give a total that their attack wouldn’t give up easily.