Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) bounced back in style, securing a seven-wicket win over Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Match 37 of IPL 2025 at Mullanpur. The comfortable chase was powered by Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal as RCB cruised to victory with balls to spare after restricting Punjab to a below-par total.

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RCB’s Bowling Brilliance Sets Up the Win

RCB skipper Rajat Patidar’s decision to bowl first paid off brilliantly. PBKS got off to a decent start with Priyansh Arya (22 off 15) and Prabhsimran Singh (33 off 17) showing promise but RCB applied the brakes quickly.

Krunal Pandya struck twice to remove both openers, and the pressure mounted as Punjab's middle order collapsed dramatically slipping from 68/2 to 114/6 between the 7th and 14th overs.

Although Shashank Singh (31 off 33)* and Marco Jansen (25 off 20)* stitched a steady partnership, PBKS could only manage 157/6 in their 20 overs.

Rajat Patidar, RCB captain, "said Credit goes to the bowlers. Devdutt Padikkal and Kohli, the way they executed their plans. The bowlers chipped in at different stages, the way they executed their plans, it was beautiful. Had to bowl tight lines as the wicket was a little slow. That was the message to all the bowlers. We had a chat last night about our fielding. Everyone put in their efforts and that was beautiful.

I want to win a toss there (Chinnaswamy). We will try to play good cricket at our home ground, we will try to rectify our mistakes there"

Shreyas Iyer, PBKS captain, said "Just a minor niggle, should be fine after this game. If you see the majority of our batters like to go from ball one, we’ve struggled to assess the wicket when we bat first.

Otherwise we’ve not been able to capitalise on the starts we’ve been getting. We weren’t able to set a total we could defend. If you see the positives, we got a great start, the bowlers have been doing a tremendous job. Credit to Virat and the boys, they played well. We keep talking about adapting to the wicket, once the ball gets old it doesn’t skid off the wicket that well. Both of them (openers) are great strokemakers, it’s hard for them to comprehend if you tell them to slow down

Need to take the bull by the horns and see to it that we get a good total on the board for the bowlers. I’m in a great mindspace, I just need to cross 10 runs and I can take on the charge. Don’t want to give reasons, want to stay in the present as much as possible. We’ve got six days off, important that we go back to the drawing board, also important we rejuvenate and refresh, need to make sure we’re in the best shape possible before the next game"

Virat Kohli, Player of the Match, said "Very important game for us. 2 points can make a massive different in terms of qualification. We have played some amazing cricket away from home. When you go from eight to ten (points), it makes a massive difference in the points table. The mindset has to get 2 points in every game. I wanted to accelerate more. I thought Dev made a difference today, this award should go to him, I don't know why they have given it to me.

I try to stay there, holding one end up and try to accelerate later. There always is a temptation to keep going in the same way. Last game was a shortened game, so we had to go hard (against PBKS.) We had to analyse the pitch in Rajasthan. One partnership is good enough in T20 cricket during run chase. I can accelerate, but I want to understand the strengths of other players. Holding one end up at the moment, that's working for us.

It was a very good auction for us, we got a good team. These guys were composed (after the auction.) Guys like David, Jitesh, Patidar, the roles they are playing. It's coming off nicely. Also Romario coming in for us today. Livingstone's also there. That was missing over the last seasons. Guys can keep counter-attacking, the guys are hungry. You can see that intensity on the field as they are diving around. That is really pleasing to see. When you play like that, your chances of winning are better"