RCB vs RR | Virat Kohli and Josh Hazlewood star in RCB’s first home win in IPL 2025

‌Brief score: RCB 205/5 (20) [Kohli 70(42), Padikkal 50(27); Sandeep 2/45 (4)] beat RR 194/9 (20) [Jaiswal 49(19), Jurel 47(34); Hazlewood 4/33 (4)] by 11 runs.

Batting first, both the RCB openers looked edgy against the pace and bounce extracted by Jofra Archer with the new ball. However, Virat Kohli got into the groove with a pull shot off the England pacer in the third over that took him past 3,500 runs in T20s at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, and never looked back. Meanwhile, Phil Salt rode his luck after Riyan Parag dropped him on 1 and joined the party with back-to-back fours off Tushar Deshpande. With the score thus 59/0 at the end of the powerplay, Riyan Parag turned to spin and found instant success as Wanindu Hasaranga sent back the out-of-sorts Salt for 26. On the back of that dismissal, the Royals’ tweakers slowly applied the brakes on RCB’s scoring rate with only 24 runs coming in the next four overs. Nevertheless, Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal shifted gears as soon as pacers came back on and boundaries started to flow frequently once again. The former RCB captain hit consecutive boundaries in the 12th over, the second one bringing up his 60th half-century in the IPL. With wickets in hand, the pair continued their aggressive approach as Parag and Deshpande bore the brunt with a combined 37 runs coming off their two overs just before the death. The 95-run partnership between the pair took RCB past the 150-run mark but three wickets in the next 11 balls somewhat halted their progress. Nonetheless, the big-hitting duo of Tim David and Jitesh Sharma came up with enterprising cameos to take the team to 205/5 at the end of 20 overs.

With a big total to surmount, the Royals walked out with intent which was evident from the first-ball six smashed by Yashasvi Jaiswal off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He was severe on Yash Dayal too, hitting two fours and a huge six in the second over with the left-arm pacer giving away 18 runs. The left-handed batter was in mood to relent as he welcomed Josh Hazlewood into the attack with three fours in his first over. He hit two more fours and a six in Hazlewood’s next over before getting out just one run short of a fifty with the score reading a healthy 72/2 after six overs. The southpaw’s dismissal did not deter the visitors as skipper Parag joined hands with Nitish Rana to take the innings forward in the same fashion. The duo added 38 runs in just 20 balls for the third wicket with their partnership fetching five fours and two sixes for the Royals. With the match tending to slip away from the hosts, RCB captain Rajat Patidar introduced Krunal Pandya with the hope of getting a breakthrough. Krunal did just that, striking with his first ball, to send back Parag who was looking dangerous with his 22 coming off just 10 balls. That dismissal triggered a period of lull for the visitors as RCB turned the tables, conceding only 38 runs in the next six overs. With the equation thus mounting to 40 off the final three overs, Dhruv Jurel and Shubham Dubey came up with a superlative effort spanking Bhuvneshwar for 22 runs. Jurel hit a six and two fours off the veteran pacer while Shubham launched one past square leg to throw the match open. But as has been the trend this season, the Royals imploded towards the end as Hazlewood’s double wicket penultimate over, costing only one run, killed any faint hopes which the visitors nurtured. The Royals could manage just five more runs in the last over and their innings ended at 194/9, resulting in their seventh defeat of the season. RCB are third in the points table with 12 points from nine matches while RR are in eighth spot with four points.

Just 2

Yup

Absolutely

Too bad

The legend

Pulled it off 

Curse broken

Need a PR

Gone

Finally