Bengaluru, April 25(H.S.) : In the 42nd match of IPL 2025, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) put on an impressive performance at their home ground, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, defeating Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 11 runs. This victory marks RCB’s first win at their home ground this season, moving the team to third place in the points table.

Batting first after losing the toss, RCB set a massive score of 205 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Openers Phil Salt (26) and Virat Kohli (70) provided a strong start, adding 61 runs for the first wicket. Kohli’s fantastic innings of 70 runs included 8 fours and 2 sixes. Devdutt Padikkal (50 runs) then partnered with Virat to form a crucial second-wicket partnership of 105 runs. In the end, Tim David (23 runs off 15 balls) and Jitesh Sharma (not out 20 runs off 10 balls) contributed swift innings to push the score over 200.

For Rajasthan, Sandeep Sharma took two wickets, while Hasaranga and Jofra Archer claimed one wicket each.

Chasing a target of 206 runs, Rajasthan Royals got off to a good start. Yashasvi Jaiswal (49 runs off 19 balls) batted aggressively but was dismissed by Josh Hazlewood. After that, wickets fell continuously. Riyan Parag (22 runs), Nitish Rana (28 runs), and Hetmyer (11 runs) couldn’t stay on the pitch. However, Dhruv Jurel (47 runs) fought till the end, but Hazlewood’s spectacular 19th over completely shifted the momentum in favor of RCB. Rajasthan could only manage 194 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in their 20 overs and lost the match by 11 runs.

For RCB, Josh Hazlewood delivered an outstanding bowling performance, taking 4 wickets, while Krunal Pandya picked up 2 wickets. Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 1 wicket.

With this victory, RCB now has 12 points and has joined Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals among the top three teams.

—————

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar