Innings Coming into this final, Punjab Kings had batted second six times in IPL 2025 and chased successfully on five of those occasions. They will back themselves to make it six out of seven now, after their bowlers executed cleverly set plans on an Ahmedabad pitch with tennis-ball bounce to restrict Royal Challengers Bengaluru to 190 for 9.This wasn’t a slow pitch that made shot-making difficult on the whole, but the ball dug into the surface on the shorter lengths – especially when bowled pace-off – misbehaved just often enough to keep the batters under control. And the PBKS seamers used this type of ball persistently and with great skill.Virat Kohli struggled for timing with his pull shot – which he played often – and eventually fell to one while scoring 43 off 35 balls. Phil Salt, Rajat Patidar and Liam Livingstone, meanwhile, began promisingly but fell just when they were looking threatening – all three to Kyle Jamieson, who used the slower legcutter with great success.2:30

Aaron: Shreyas Iyer has walked the talk time and time again

Only Jitesh Sharma, who scored 24 off 10 balls, found a method to attack PBKS’ hard lengths successfully, making room, using his feet, and exploring the V behind the wicket.Jitesh’s fifth-wicket stand of 36 off 12 balls with Liam Livingstone threatened to give RCB the finish that would take them past 200, but their ambitions were nipped in the bud by Vijaykumar Vyshak, who dismissed Jitesh while conceding just five runs in the 18th over, and Arshdeep Singh, who found the reverse-swing that allowed him to go full and attack the stumps in a three-wicket final over that cost PBKS just five runs.