Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) emerged on the fitting facet of a capricious, roller-coaster Indian Premier League 2025 match after pipping Chennai Tremendous Kings (CSK) by two runs on the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
Chasing 214, CSK wanted 15 off the final over with Ravindra Jadeja and M.S. Dhoni on the crease. However Yash Dayal –the hero in the identical fixture final yr in Bengaluru – dismissed Dhoni, survived a monstrous six from Impression Participant Shivam Dube off a no-ball to hold his facet residence.
For vital intervals, CSK had the chase beneath management. The teenaged expertise of Ayush Mhatre blossomed (94, 48b, 9×4, 5×6) and the 17-year-old mixed for a wonderful 114-run stand off 64 balls for the third wicket with Jadeja (77, 45b, 8×4, 2×6).
However with 43 wanted from 24 balls, Lungi Ngidi dismissed Mhatre and Dewald Brevis off back-to-back deliveries within the seventeenth over to carry RCB proper again in. Jadeja was dropped twice, together with by the often dependable Virat Kohli within the nineteenth over off Bhuvneshwar Kumar, however RCB held on.
CSK was on the right track when Jadeja and Mhatre (R) added 114-run third-wicket partnership.
| Picture Credit score:
MURALI KUMAR Okay/The Hindu
CSK was on the right track when Jadeja and Mhatre (R) added 114-run third-wicket partnership.
| Picture Credit score:
MURALI KUMAR Okay/The Hindu
Earlier, after shedding yet one more toss at residence, the RCB innings went by a boom-bust-boom cycle. Jacob Bethell (55, 33b, 8×4, 2×6) and Virat Kohli (62, 33b, 5×4, 5×6) placed on 97 for the opening wicket at greater than 10 an over.
Kohli’s 62nd IPL fifty had his trademark flicks and drives whereas the promising Bethell, who changed Phil Salt for a second sport working, introduced up his maiden IPL fifty (55, 33b, 8×4, 2×6).
However left-arm unorthodox bowler Noor Ahmad (4-0-26-1) and Matheesha Pathirana (4-0-36-3) introduced CSK again by limiting RCB to 159 for 5 after 18 overs.
When all hopes of a aggressive rating for RCB appeared to relaxation on Tim David’s bludgeoning blade, welcomed as he was by a thunderous applause from the group, it was Romario Shepherd who stole the present with a surprising 14-ball unbeaten 53 (4×4, 6×4).
The Guyanese plundered 32 runs off an already-expensive Khaleel Ahmed within the nineteenth over earlier than smashing Pathirana for 20 within the final. The 30-year-old didn’t center each ball however swung the bat like an almighty axe, and was his brute energy that carried the ball lengthy distances. By the seems of it, it would simply have carried RCB into the Playoffs too.