A fantastic all-round display from Krunal Pandya sent the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) storming to a 6-wicket win over the Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 46th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. RCB chased down the target of 163 with 9 balls to spare – thanks to an unbeaten 73 from Krunal Pandya (47 balls), and displaying his all-round skills with the bat and a tidy spell of 1/28 in the ball too.
RCB had won the toss and elected to bowl and were quickly vindicated. Delhi started positively, with some fireworks coming from Abihek Porel (28 off 11 balls), but lost the momentum pretty quickly while KL Rahul (41 off 39) was linking the innings, Tristan Stubbs (34 off 18) provided some acceleration to get a decent total of 162/8.
The RCB bowlers shared the workload and the wickets, the pick being senior bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar getting 3 wickets for 33 runs. Josh Hazlewood picked up 2 wickets while Krunal Pandya had the middle overs bowled in a spin.
After losing early wickets in their chase, RCB’s batting had an awful start. Jacob Bethell, Devdutt Padikkal, and Rajat Patidar all fell cheaply, and inside the powerplay, RCB were 26/3 after 4 overs.
But then came Krunal Pandya.
With Virat Kohli holding up the batting (51 runs off 47 balls), Krunal Pandya put on a 119 run partnership with him as they put RCB’s chase back on track. Kohli was the anchor, while Pandya was explosive, scoring 5 fours and 4 sixes in his match-winning innings.
The game was finished in the 19th over when Tim David came in and smashed 19 runs off just 5 balls to finish it in style.
With this win RCB are now the No 1 team in the points table, while Delhi have a long way to go for their playoff hopes.
RCB captain Rajat Patidar said this about Pandya at the post-match presentation: “Krunal displayed why he is a match-winner and that was top-quality innings under pressure.”
Delhi’s captain Axar Patel admitted to missing chances: “We started nicely but lost the momentum in the middle overs. Kudos to Krunal, who took the game away from us.”
With little league stage left, every game matters — and RCB will be pleased to have their star all-rounder peaking at the right time.
Scorecard: DC vs RCB, 46th Match, IPL 2025, Delhi, Apr 27 2025
Delhi Capitals 162/8
KL Rahul 41 (39)
Tristan Stubbs 34 (18)
Abishek Porel 28 (11)
Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/33
Josh Hazelwood 2/36
Krunal Pandya 1/28
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 164/5
Krunal Pandya 73 (47)
Virat Kohli 51 (47)
Tim David 19 (5)
Axar Patel 2/19
Dushmatha Chameera 1/24
Kuldeep Yadav 0/28
