An agonising 18-year wait finally shattered—ushering in a night drenched in redemption, relief, and pure ecstasy for one side, while delivering a devastating, soul-crushing heartbreak to the other.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru, once the object of ridicule and banter on social media, kissed this trophy that eluded them since the inaugural IPL season in 2008.
Punjab Kings will relate to it as their wait grows longer. Their young batters, potentially India hopefuls, found the pressure of the final too overwhelming, losing their mojo in the chase of 190.
RCB’s defense was anchored by a Krunal Pandya and Josh Hazlewood who displayed their smarts when it mattered the most.
For Punjab, their batting talisman and skipper, Shreyas Iyer, had a rare off-day which bled them. On a slow wicket, Iyer’s presence was critical to marshal the chase, but it wasn’t to be.
“When we batted in the first innings, I had a discussion with the batters and realised that the slower you bowl, the better it is, and it is difficult [for batters to hit]. In this format, as a bowler, you need guts to do that because the margin of error becomes very minimal. I just backed myself and thought that if I could vary my pace and keep it more on the slower side, I would create chances, rather than just firing it in,” Krunal explained.
RCB’s meticulously crafted bowling unit—assembled with precision during the mega auction—rose to the occasion perfectly. For years, RCB faced scorn for overvaluing star batters at the expense of their bowling.
But 2025 rewrote the narrative: the final was a powerful testament to the bowlers’ collective grit, discipline, and execution.
It wasn’t quite smooth sailing. Critics questioned Kohli’s conservative approach on such a high-stakes stage—he struck just three boundaries throughout his innings, only one of them during the powerplay, opting instead to rotate strike with singles and twos rather than unleashing big shots. His modest 13 runs off 10 balls in the powerplay on a relatively batting-friendly pitch left many puzzled.
Eventually dismissed for 43 off 35 balls in the 15th over, Kohli’s innings steadied RCB at 190/9—a total their bowlers fiercely defended. Punjab could only muster 184/7 despite a furious last-over assault by Shashank Singh, who hammered Hazlewood for 22 runs.
But yesterday was a story of RCB’s triumph, not of PBKS’s heartbreak.
Let’s do some more stats crunching. From 2011 to 2023, Kohli led RCB 143 times—the third-highest number of IPL captaincy matches—and took them to the final in 2016, where they fell to Sunrisers Hyderabad. His staggering 973 runs in that season remain an IPL record.
But these numbers always paled before RCB’s empty cabinet. Bengaluru fans waited longingly for the trophy, enduring years of near-misses. The emotionally charged scenes yesterday showed how much this title meant to Kohli and RCB fans.
Soon after the win, Kohli enveloped Ravi Shastri in a warm embrace, a reminder of the captain-coach partnership from 2017 to 2021 when India was arguably the most accomplished Test team, if not the best in history.
Kohli’s victory speech was nothing short of monumental: “I’ve given this team my youth, my prime, and now my experience. Every season, I’ve come out and given it everything I have to try and win this. To finally have this moment arrive – it’s an unbelievable feeling.”
“I never thought this day would come,” Kohli confessed. “I gave every ounce of my energy.”
In the wake of this historic triumph, Kohli revealed that celebrations would roll on into Wednesday, capped by a special victory parade in Bengaluru. After years of yearning and heartbreak, the trophy is finally coming home.
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