Ee sala... you know the rest
They've come close so many times, and now, at the 18th attempt, they're IPL champions. An incredible finish to this final, with Shashank hitting Hazlewood for 6, 4, 6, 6 to finish, but it all came in vain, because the first two balls of the over, with 29 needed at the start, were dot balls. Shashank finishes on an unbeaten 61 off 30 balls. What a season, and what an innings to finish, but it will be of no consolation either to him or to PBKS, because it's all about RCB now. They've won by six runs, and that margin reflects how closely matched these two sides are, but it's also a little deceptive because so many of those runs came after RCB had sealed victory.
It's a sign of how far T20 has come that 190 beats 184 is a bowler-dominated game. PBKS did brilliantly to restrict RCB to 190, but RCB's bowlers were even better, and used their experience to telling effect. I don't know who'll get the Player of the Match award, but Krunal Pandya has to be a frontrunner.
It's been a terrific final, with so much ebb and flow to it, at the end of an outstanding season. It's a pity that one of these two brilliant teams had to lose today.
With that, I'll leave you and rush off to start on the match report. I'm doing this sitting at home in Bengaluru, and I can hear the fireworks going off. What a day for the city. How long they've waited for this.
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The Shashank Redemption?
Sorry, couldn't resist.
Shashank refuses singles and keeps strike for the entirety of the 19th over. Hits Bhuvneshwar for a straight six first ball, and shuffles across to help him for four to fine leg, where Krunal overruns the ball. Then manages to squeeze out a last-ball single to keep the strike. That means PBKS need 29 off the final over. It'll be Hazlewood to bowl.
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Six down
Azmatullah Omarzai had a pretty good day with the ball, but he can't make an impact with the bat. Looks to clear his front leg and launch Yash Dayal down the ground, but it's a clever little delivery from the left-armer, a back-of-the-hand slower ball angled away from off stump. Ends up skewing it high to short third, and PBKS need 46 off 16, with Kyle Jamieson joining Shashank at the crease.
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Bhuvneshwar gets Wadhera... and Stoinis
Like Krunal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has the experience of winning a tight IPL final. He ends a fifth-wicket stand of 38, slanting what looks like a knuckleball across Wadhera and away from his hitting arc. Can't find the power to clear the man at deep cover. In walks Marcus Stoinis. PBKS need 55 from 22.
Update: Wow. An over full of drama, and it isn't done yet. Bhuvi's first ball to Stoinis is a slower ball outside off, but it's in the slot, and he drives it for a magnificent six over wide long-off. Then Bhuvi goes full and wide again, and this time he slices a catch straight to short third. PBKS still have Omarzai and Jamieson, but they need 48 off 19...
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PBKS hang on by their fingernails
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That's overs 15 and 16, from Shepherd and Hazlewood. PBKS score 30 off them. Shashank Singh, who has hit two of the three sixes in this passage, both off Hazlewood, is batting on 22 off 14. He and Nehal Wadhera have put on 38 off 23.
PBKS need 55 off the last 24 balls.
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Krunal gets the big wicket
Wow. I had just hit send on that last post about the Inglis pull.
He steps out now, looks to hit Krunal over long-on, and can't quite get enough elevation or power to clear the fielder. Krunal is bowling a properly match-turning spell here. He currently has 2 for 14 from 3.1 overs. He's already been Player of the Match in one IPL final, and that was for his batting.
Update: Krunal ends that over, and his quota of four, with figures of 2 for 17. Wow.
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The Inglis pull
Josh Inglis is batting on 39 off 22. He's keeping his team in this contest when his batting colleagues have been struggling. And he's done this by means of the pull. Against pace and spin, he's scored 33 off 10 balls with this shot, hitting one four and four sixes with it.
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November 19, 2023
Well, well. A moment reminiscent of another big match at the same venue, the 2023 World Cup final. Shreyas Iyer was in red-hot form, and had played the innings of India's semi-final victory. Then he fell early, caught behind off a back-of-a-length delivery.
It's happened again, folks. Not quite in the same way - he was trying to cut Romario Shepherd here, whereas he'd kind of pushed uncertainly at Pat Cummins in that other game.
The result is the same. PBKS end the 10th over at 81 for 3. They need 110 off the last 60 balls. RCB might just be favourites now, but PBKS still have a lot of batting left. Nehal Wadhera has just walked in, and Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis and Azmatullah Omarzai are still to come.
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Change of pace ends Prabhsimran's misery
PBKS' quicker bowlers used the slower ball brilliantly. Now one of RCB's spinners has struck with a clever slower ball. Krunal's stock ball usually clocks around 98kph, and he often goes past 100kph. Now he dangles an 80kph ball wide of off stump to the charging Prabhsimran, inviting him to reach out and go after him. He tries to, but only manages to slice a high catch to point.
PBKS are 72 for 2 in 8.3 overs.
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Two release shots
Krunal Pandya bowls the seventh over and concedes just three, bowling flat, quick, into the pitch, and either into leg stump or well outside off, giving the batters either no room or a single to sweeper cover that they don't really want. At the end of that over, PBKS are 55 for 1.
Suyash Sharma bowls the eighth over, and he's made an understated impact on RCB's season, because even though his raw numbers look ordinary, he's bowled a lot of good spells and genuinely troubled batters with the dip he generates, especially on his wrong'un. But he can still bowl a bad ball every now and then. Josh Inglis pulls him for six when he drops marginally short: his low crouch, his back-foot step to leg stump rather than back and across, and his lightning-quick hands allow him to clear deep midwicket even though it's a wrong'un that might cramp another batter for room.
Then Suyash bowls a hit-me slot ball to Prabhsimran Singh, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Prabhsimran was struggling for timing and constantly getting wrenched out of shape looking to hit too hard. He was batting on 18 off 18 balls. Then he puts away the slot ball for a clean, straight six.
PBKS are 70 for 1 in eight overs.
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52 for 1
That's PBKS' powerplay score. RCB were 55 for 1 at the same stage. The advantage for PBKS is that they know their target, and they're pretty close to their required rate with nine wickets in hand.
RCB have made their Impact substitution. Mayank Agarwal is off, and Suyash Sharma, as expected, is on.
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Arya's luck runs out
Arya goes for 24 off 19, and he falls to an incredible juggling catch on the backward square leg boundary from Phil Salt. Whips Hazlewood off his hip, and Salt, running to his right, catches it on the edge of the boundary, flicks it up before he steps over the rope, and completes the catch upon returning to the field of play. The footwork on the rope was remarkable, because he never seemed to break stride.
Arya hit four fours, and three of them were edges or slices over short third. He also miscued a pull into no man's land. But sometimes, you create your own luck by going hard at the bowling and risking not being in control: that's not a bad strategy on a bouncy pitch when the bowling team can only put two fielders outside the 30-yard circle.
PBKS are 43 for 1 in five overs.
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Not the usual PBKS start
RCB have tightened their lines after giving away a few early boundaries, and Arya and Prabhsimran aren't going chasing boundaries. They've been happy to push and dab when it's been on a length and not offering width. Bhuvneshwar concedes four runs in the fourth over, and PBKS are 32 for no loss.
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Pri-Pra on the prowl
Never miss a chance to unleash an alliteration that tries too hard.
Anyway, PBKS are 23 for no loss in two overs. Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh are up and running. A couple of balls angling down leg to Arya, off which PBKS have picked up a glance four and four leg byes. Both openers have also slashed hard and picked up slightly streaky boundaries off short or shortish balls outside off.
On comes Josh Hazlewood, who could be a tricky proposition on this pitch.
Update: Hazlewood creates a chance with his fourth ball, rushing Prabhsimran and cramping him for room on the hook with a head-high bouncer, and he actually does well to hook that off the middle, but it goes flat in the air to Romario Shepherd, who dives forward and shells a fairly straightforward chance at long leg. Arya miscues a pull off the last ball of the same over, but this one lands safely in no-man's land.
PBKS are 28 for no loss in three overs.
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Jamieson and Arshdeep restrict RCB to 190 for 9
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 190 for 9 (Kohli 43, Arshdeep 3-40, Jamieson 3-48) vs Punjab Kings
Coming into this final, Punjab Kings had batted second six times in IPL 2025 and chased successfully on five of those occasions. They will back themselves to make it 6 out of 7 now, after their bowlers executed cleverly set plans on an Ahmedabad pitch with tennis-ball bounce to restrict Royal Challengers Bengaluru to 190 for 9.
This wasn’t a slow pitch that made shot-making difficult on the whole, but the ball dug into the surface on the shorter lengths – especially when bowled pace-off – misbehaved just often enough to keep the batters under control. And the PBKS seamers used this type of ball persistently and with great skill.
Virat Kohli struggled for timing with his pull shot – which he played often – and eventually fell to one while scoring 43 off 35 balls. Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar and Liam Livingstone, meanwhile, began promisingly but fell just when they were looking threatening – all three to Kyle Jamieson, who used the slower legcutter with grear success.
Only Jitesh Sharma, who scored 24 off 10 balls, found a method to attack PBKS’ hard lengths successfully, making room, using his feet, and exploring the V behind the wicket.
Jitesh’s fifth-wicket stand of 36 off 12 balls threatened to give RCB the finish that would take them past 200, but their ambitions were nipped in the bud by Vijaykumar Vyshak, who dismissed Jitesh while conceding just five runs in the 18th over, and Arshdeep Singh, who found the reverse-swing that allowed him to go full and attack the stumps in a three-wicket final over that cost PBKS just five runs.
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Omarzai deviates from the plan
A moment that illustrates so much about T20. Azmatullah Omarzai had bowled a brilliant 19th over, going into the pitch every ball for five balls and giving away just one boundary, an edged four. He goes full right after conceding that four, however, and Romario Shepherd launches him for a merciless six over long-on to end the over. RCB are 187 for 6 in 19 overs.
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Vyshak ends Jitesh's cameo
Terrific cameo from the RCB keeper. Ends during the course of a terrific 18th over from Vyshak. He should have dismissed Shepherd first ball, but the miscued pull off a shoulder-high short ball is shelled by sub fielder Praveen Dubey running in off the midwicket boundary. Then he has a caught-behind appeal upheld - that decision is then overturned on review - with a hard-length ball that bounces and nips away from Jitesh. Then he goes into the pitch again, and this one skids through to bowl Jitesh as he looks to maul it into the leg side.
Only five runs and that wicket in that 18th over, and RCB are 173 for 6. Vyshak finishes with 1 for 30 in his four.
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Jitesh finds a way
RCB have been banging the ball into the pitch, and often doing this while bowling slower balls. They've made batters struggle for timing against the tennis-ball bounce of this pitch. And they had been extremely successful with this strategy until Jitesh Sharma came to the crease.
Since his arrival, Jitesh has done things that RCB's top order didn't try. He made acres of room to manufacture a slapped six over the covers. Then he played a shot straight out of tennis-ball cricket (appropriate given the tennis-ball bounce), facing the bowler front-on and winnowing the ball over his own head and the keeper. Then he's jumped down the pitch to change the length and hammered a big six straight down the ground. RCB have taken 13 off Arshdeep in the 16th over and then 23 off Jamieson in the 17th, with Liam Livingstone also joining in the fun and picking up a big pulled six.
Jamieson gets Livingstone with the fifth legal ball of that over, a dipping slower full-toss that the batter slugged across and missed, but RCB have finally found some momentum. They're 168 for 5 in 17 overs with Romario Shepherd having just joined Jitesh at the crease.
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Omarzai gets Kohli
The Afghanistan allrounder has had a great day so far, his hard lengths and pace changes good enough for RCB to have hit him for just the one four in 2.5 overs. And now he takes his first wicket with a superb short ball, and perhaps an even better catch. The ball climbs to above Kohli's right shoulder, an awkward place to pull from, and he miscues it high in the air, over the midwicket region. There's no one inside the circle there, so Omarzai has to sprint there himself to take the catch, complicated by the fact of initially having to find a route past the non-striker. In the end he has to dive, and he comes up with the ball in both hands.
Kohli falls for 43 off 35, and RCB are 131 for 4 in 14.5 overs.
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Chahal bowls out
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He finishes with 1 for 37 from his four overs, after conceding 13 from his last over - the joint-biggest of RCB's innings. Livingstone hit him for a big six over long-off and Kohli slog-swept him for four between deep midwicket and long-on, but in between, both batters were happy to push the ball to deep fielders for singles. A bit of aggression, but with the handbrake still on.
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What sort of pitch is this?
Since the Patidar dismissal, RCB have gone 13 balls without a boundary or even a genuine boundary attempt. Chahal conceded six runs in the 12th over, and Vijaykumar Vyshak, bowling predominantly slower balls, conceded eight in the 13th. PBKS's seamers have all bowled a lot of slower balls today. RCB are 111 for 3 in 13 overs.
Is that a good foundation on a slow pitch? Or a lack of ambition from RCB on a flat pitch that's playing a little slow? We will see as this match goes along.
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Jamieson foxes Patidar
Second wicket for Kyle Jamieson, and it's a massive one. Patidar had stepped out and launched him for a big six over long-off, off a good-length legcutter, just a couple of balls previously. But Jamieson keeps trusting in that slower legcutter. First on a length to beat Patidar outside off for lack of pace, and then with a full, dipping one right in front of the stumps to trap him lbw as he looks to work him across the line.
Patidar is out for 26 off 16, and RCB are 96 for 3 in 10.5 overs. Kohli is batting on 28 off 22 with a control percentage of 95. With batting all the way down to Krunal Pandya at No. 8, you wonder if he may have wanted to let go of some of that control to chase a few more boundaries.
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The importance of Rajat Patidar
This is an extremely important phase in the game. Kohli has tended to slow down in overs 7 to 10 during this IPL (more on that here), and today he didn't really score quickly in the powerplay either. At the end of the ninth over he's batting on 21 off 18 balls, with just the one four and not a lot of boundary attempts otherwise. He's also known to not take too many chances against spin (though he has shown recently, though not yet in this match, that he's much more prepared to play the slog-sweep than he used to).
So with Kohli at the crease and Chahal bowling, RCB desperately need someone to hit some boundaries at the other end. They have just the man for the job. Rajat Patidar hit Chahal for a six in the ninth over that showed just why he's such a dangerous spin-hitter: it was a slog-sweep of sorts, against a good-length ball, and the thing that made that shot possible was that he hit it more through the line than across it, aiming over wide long-on).
Patidar is on 17 off 9, and RCB are 80 for 2 in nine overs.
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Chahal strikes against his old team
The leggie comes on in the first over after the powerplay, and sends back Agarwal with his second ball. It's a nice, solid good-length legbreak, and Agarwal tries to take on the sweep against the turn. It's a bit half-hearted - he's down on his back knee, but he's sort of leaning back and half-sweeping, half-scooping, and he's not close enough to the pitch of the ball to keep the shot down. Ends up hitting it straight to deep backward square leg, and he's out for 24 off 18 balls. RCB are 56 for 2 in 6.2 overs.
Here's a terrific spot from Deep Gadhia: It's the seventh time Chahal has dismissed Mayank in the IPL.
Batters dismissed most by Chahal in the IPL:
7 - Mayank Agarwal
6 - Quinton de Kock
6 - Nitish Rana
6 - Quinton de Kock
6 - Nitish Rana
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55 for 1
The powerplay is done, and I guess neither side will be too pleased or too displeased. PBKS could possibly be the happier side. RCB have lost only the one wicket, but I don't know if they want to be going at less than 10 an over in the powerplay on this pitch. Agarwal hasn't quite found the fluency to match his high intent, while Kohli hasn't really tried to take on the bowling.
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Bounce...
This pitch has plenty of bounce and carry, which makes for a very watchable contest. The ball is coming onto the bat nicely, and the batters have been able to punish errors easily: Mayank Agarwal has already hit a straight six off Arshdeep and a crisply steered four past the man at deep point off Jamieson; and Kohli, who hasn't had much strike, has also picked up a lovely clipped four to the fine leg boundary. But when the bowlers have hit the pitch, they've tested the batters with lift. Arshdeep beat Agarwal on the hook once, and Jamieson has twice gone past his edge with extra bounce. RCB are 39 for 1 in four overs.
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Jamieson ends Salt's salvo
The first wicket of the IPL final, and it could be a critical one (Sidharth Monga's excellent piece on Salt continues the hoary old tradition of ESPNcricinfo jinxing players).
Salt had hit Kyle Jamieson for a four earlier in the over, hitting a good-length ball over mid-on. A similar delivery two balls later perhaps bounces a little more, and he skews it high in the air, with the bat turning on impact, and is caught by that mid-on fielder. Salt goes for 16 off 9, and RCB are 18 for 1 in 1.4 overs.
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Salt is up and running
He only returned to India this morning, after flying back home to attend the birth of his child, but there are no signs of jetlag or fatigue. Hits Arshdeep Singh for a six and a four in the first over, both pulls off short balls. Felt like a tactic from PBKS, because Arshdeep usually looks to go full and swing the new ball, and the six flew fairly close to the man at long leg.
In any case, the margins go Salt's way (and he hit both pulls cleanly), and RCB are 13 for no loss after one over.
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PBKS bowl, no Tim David for RCB
Punjab Kings chose to bowl vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru
Punjab Kings (PBKS) have chosen to bowl first in the IPL 2025 final against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
For the second match running, PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer disregarded Ahmedabad’s record this season – the team batting first has won six of the eight matches played at the venue – but his team are fresh off defying that record, having chased down a target of 204 with an over to spare against Mumbai Indians (MI) in Qualifier 2.
Both teams named unchanged line-ups. This meant RCB finisher Tim David was not yet fully recovered from the hamstring injury that has kept him out of action since May 23, and legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal was fit enough to start for PBKS after bowling four overs in Qualifier 2 with his hand at less than 100% fitness.
It also meant RCB's XI included the England opener Phil Salt, who flew to Ahmedabad on the morning of the match after having gone home to attend the birth of his child.
PBKS’s likely Impact Player is the opener Prabhsimran Singh, and RCB’s is the legspinner Suyash Sharma.
The match will be played on the most central pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium, with both square boundaries equidistant at 64m. The surface for the match is a mixed one with both red and black soil.
For the first time since 2016, the IPL final will pit two sides who have never previously won the title. RCB have lost their three previous finals – in 2009, 2011 and 2016 – while PBKS lost their only other final – in 2014.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Mayank Agarwal, 4 Rajat Patidar (capt), 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Romario Shepherd, 8 Krunal Pandya, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Yash Dayal, 11 Josh Hazlewood.
RCB impact bench: Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Dar, Manoj Bhandage, Tim Seifert, Swapnil Singh.
RCB impact bench: Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Dar, Manoj Bhandage, Tim Seifert, Swapnil Singh.
Punjab Kings: 1 Priyansh Arya, 2 Josh Inglis (wk), 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Nehal Wadhera, 5 Shashank Singh, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Azmatullah Omarzai, 8 Kyle Jamieson, 9 Vijaykumar Vyshak, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal.
PBKS Impact bench: Prabhsimran Singh, Xavier Bartlett, Harpreet Brar, Suryansh Shedge, Praveen Dubey.
PBKS Impact bench: Prabhsimran Singh, Xavier Bartlett, Harpreet Brar, Suryansh Shedge, Praveen Dubey.
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New champions, guaranteed
They've been around since day one of the IPL. They've been involved in some of the most stirring moments in the tournament's history. They've put together fantastic seasons, and reached four finals between them.
But Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings have never crossed that final hurdle. Until tonight.
Tonight will be a historic night. It's the first time since 2016 that the IPL final will feature two teams who've never won the title before. It promises to be a hugely emotional night. The fans of these two teams have experienced so much heartbreak, watched so many promising seasons come to nothing, watched captains, coaches, squads and philosophies come and go, and they've stuck around despite all the pain (some, of course, have hopped onto the bandwagon this season, but that's a legitimate kind of fandom too, no one's judging). One set of fans is about to have the party of their lives. The other... well, let's keep the mood upbeat until someone actually loses, yeah?
It's time for Patidar vs Iyer, Flower vs Ponting, Hazlewood vs Arshdeep, and Kohli vs all the forces that have conspired to keep him trophyless for so many seasons. He's been an RCB player for longer than he's been an India player, and he's been through every juddering moment of their 18-season rollercoaster ride. Will tonight be his night? Or...
So anyway, here we are. Two months and twelve days into this gripping tournament - which has come through an uncertain pause, a hurried rescheduling, and a mass reshuffle of personnel - here we finally are. It's RCB vs PBKS in Ahmedabad. It's time for the IPL to crown its eighth champion team.
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