It was a frustrating evening for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on Friday as their batting line-up crumbled against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in a rain-hit IPL 2025 clash in Bengaluru. The match was cut short to 14 overs per side, but that didn’t stop PBKS from handing RCB a five-wicket defeat.
Shreyas Iyer won the toss and chose to bowl first — and it turned out to be the right call.
RCB’s innings never really got going. They lost opener Phil Salt early, falling in the very first over. Virat Kohli followed not long after, dismissed for just 1. The scoreboard read 21 for 2 by the end of the third over, and from there, things just kept going downhill.
Rajat Patidar walked in hoping to build something, but he couldn’t find a stable partner. He scored 23 off 18 before falling in the eighth over. In the end, only Patidar and Tim David managed to cross double digits. David’s unbeaten 50 helped RCB scrape together 95 for 9 in their 14 overs.
What followed was a steady chase from PBKS. Nehal Wadhera played a crucial knock, finishing unbeaten on 33 from just 19 balls and sealing the match with a six. PBKS chased down the target in 12.1 overs with five wickets in hand.
After the match, a visibly frustrated Patidar didn’t hold back. Speaking about the performance, he said, “The pitch was a bit sticky and two-paced early on, but we should have done a lot better as a team. Partnerships matter in batting. We keep losing wickets too often.”
He didn’t mention names, but the message was clear — the batting unit had let the team down.
The numbers tell the story. Apart from Patidar and David, no one else from RCB reached double figures. Kohli, Salt, Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, and Bhandage were all dismissed cheaply.
RCB’s bowlers, especially Josh Hazlewood, tried to fight back. Hazlewood was sharp, taking three wickets for just 14 runs in his three overs. But there just wasn’t enough on the board to defend.
With this loss, RCB now have four wins and three defeats in IPL 2025. PBKS, on the other hand, move up to second on the table with five wins out of seven.
