IPL 2025 Qualifier 1: Royal Challengers Bangalore reached the final after 9 years by defeating Punjab Kings, Hazlewood-Suyash-Salt shone

Mullanpur. Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) has made it to the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 by performing brilliantly. On May 29 (Thursday), RCB defeated Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 8 wickets in the Qualifier-1 match held at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur. In the match, RCB got a target of 102 runs to win, which it achieved in just 10 overs. The final is to be played in Ahmedabad on June 3, where RCB will face the winner of Qualifier-2.

If seen, Royal Challengers Bangalore has reached the final for the fourth time and after 9 years. Earlier, it had made it to the finals in the 2009, 2011 and 2016 seasons. However, he had to face defeat all three times. Now Punjab Kings will play the second qualifier, which is to be played in Ahmedabad on June 1. In Qualifier-2, Punjab Kings will face the winner of the eliminator match. The eliminator match is to be held between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Gujarat Titans (GT) on 30 May.

Chasing the target, Royal Challengers Bangalore did not have a good start and got the first blow at the score of 30 runs. Virat Kohli was caught out by fast bowler Kyle Jamieson at the hands of wicketkeeper Josh Inglis. King Kohli scored 12 runs with the help of a strike rate of 100 and two fours.

After Virat Kohli’s dismissal, there was a partnership of 54 runs between Phil Salt and ‘Impact Sub’ Mayank Agarwal, which completely took the match away from Punjab Kings. Mayank became the victim of Mushir Khan after scoring 19 runs. After Mayank was out, Phil Salt and Rajat Patidar (15*) took RCB to the doorstep of victory. Salt scored 56 runs in 27 balls with the help of 6 fours and three sixes.

Shameful performance of Punjab Kings batsmen
After losing the toss and batting first, the entire team of Punjab Kings collapsed for just 101 runs in 14.1 overs. Punjab Kings had a bad start and lost four wickets in the powerplay. Its first wicket fell in the second over itself, when Yash Dayal dismissed Priyansh Arya (7 runs). Then Bhuvneshwar Kumar also sent the second opener Prabhsimran Singh (18 runs) to the pavilion. After this, Josh Hazlewood sent the opposition team captain Shreyas Iyer (2 runs) to the pavilion in his very first over. Punjab suffered another blow in the powerplay in the form of Josh Inglis, who became the victim of Josh Hazlewood after scoring 4 runs. At the time of Josh Inglis’ dismissal, Punjab’s score was 38 runs for 4 wickets in 5.1 overs.

The process of Punjab Kings’ wickets falling continued. Where in-form Nehal Vadhera was bowled by Yash Dayal. After this, spinner Suyash Sharma’s spin worked fiercely. Suyash dismissed Shashank Singh (3 runs) and ‘impact sub’ Mushir Khan (0) in the same over. At the same time, Suyash also took the big wicket of Marcus Stoinis. Stoinis scored 26 runs in 17 balls with the help of 2 fours and 2 sixes.
The last two wickets of Punjab Kings fell in the form of Harpreet Brar and Azmatullah Umarzai. Only Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Umarzai and Prabhsimran Singh could reach double figures from Punjab. Josh Hazlewood and Suyash Sharma got three wickets each from RCB. At the same time, Yash Dayal took two wickets. Romario Shepherd and Bhuvneshwar Kumar also got one wicket each.

Fast bowler Josh Hazlewood returned to the playing-11 of Royal Challengers Bangalore for this match. At the same time, Rajat Patidar also came out to captain after becoming fully fit. On the other hand, Punjab Kings gave a chance to Afghan all-rounder Azmatullah Umarzai. Umarzai replaced South African all-rounder Marco Jansen, who has returned home.