PBKS vs RCB Highlights: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated Punjab Kings by eight wickets to enter the final of IPL 2025. The team has now reached the final after 2009, 2011, and 2016. Qualifier-1 of the current season of IPL was played on Thursday, in which RCB won the toss and decided to bowl first. In this match, Punjab Kings were all out for 101 runs in 14.1 overs. In response, RCB scored 106 runs for the loss of two wickets in 10 overs on the basis of Phil Salt’s half-century and won the match.
Punjab Kings’ Road to Final Continues
The Shreyas Iyer-led team may have missed out on reaching the final directly, but they will get another chance. Now they have to play Qualifier-2. In this match, they will face the team that wins the eliminator match. The Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians will play the eliminator match of this season on Friday, in which the winning team will compete in Qualifier-2 against Punjab Kings. The venue for this match is Ahmedabad on June 1.
PBKS vs RCB: RCB’s Chase and Phil Salt’s Impact
RCB started with a setback while chasing the target. Virat Kohli was caught by Josh Inglis off Kyle Jamieson. He was able to score 12 runs in 12 balls. After this, Mayank Agarwal was sent to the pavilion by Musheer Khan. He returned after scoring 19 runs. However, Phil Salt remained at the crease and completed his half-century in just 23 balls. He remained unbeaten on 56 runs with the help of six fours and three sixes in 27 balls. At the same time, Rajat Patidar scored 15* runs. Kyle Jamieson and Musheer Khan took one wicket each for Punjab.
Punjab Kings’ Batting Collapse in Qualifier-1
The playoffs have started in IPL 2025. Qualifier-1 was played between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. In this match, RCB bowlers gave a big blow to Punjab with a deadly performance. The team was all out for a score of 101 runs in 14.1 overs. Marcus Stoinis scored the highest 26 runs for them. At the same time, Prabhsimran and Azmatullah Umarzai were out after scoring 18-18 runs. Six of their batsmen could not even touch the double-digit mark. For RCB, Josh Hazlewood and Suyash Sharma took three wickets each while Yash Dayal got two wickets. Apart from this, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Romario Shepherd got one success each.
Punjab Kings’ Unwanted Playoff Record
With this, the Punjab team has become the team to bat for the least number of overs in the IPL playoffs. It left behind this unwanted record made by Delhi Daredevils (now Capitals) in 2008. At that time, the Delhi team could bat only for 16.1 overs against Rajasthan Royals. This is also the joint third lowest total of the IPL playoffs. The record of scoring the lowest score in the IPL playoffs is in the name of Deccan Chargers, who scored 82 runs against RCB in 2010. This is also the fourth lowest score of Punjab Kings in IPL.
Read More: Virat Kohli’s Playoff Curse—Can He Break It This Time?
