IPL to witness new champion as RCB-PBKS fight for their maiden title in 18 years

AHMEDABAD: Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) will lock horns against each other in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Tuesday in order to end their title drought in the competition.

RCB have qualified for the Indian Premier League final thrice in the past, losing all three times in 2009, 2011 and 2016.

PBKS, on the other hand, qualified for the final once in 2014 when they were known as Kings XI Punjab, losing the match to Kolkata Knight Riders.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru were the first team to qualify for the final. They finished the league stage in second spot with 19 points from 14 games before beating Punjab Kings by eight wickets in Qualifier 1 to book their berth in the final.

Virat Kohli has been RCB’s go-to man with the bat this season having accumulated 614 runs at an average of 55.82 and a strike rate of 146.53 this season.

On the bowling front, Josh Hazlewood has been their leading wicket-taker with 21 scalps in 11 games at an average of 15.80 and an economy of 8.30.
Punjab Kings, meanwhile, topped the league stage with 19 points from 14 games and a better net run rate than RCB.

However, PBKS lost their Qualifier 1 game against RCB, leading to them facing Mumbai Indians in the Qualifier 2 clash, which they won by five wickets to secure their spot in the summit match.

Skipper Shreyas Iyer has been Punjab Kings’ best batter this season with 603 runs at an average of 54.82 and a strike rate of 175.80. He also made a match-winning 41-ball 87 not out against MI in Qualifier 2 to help guide PBKS into the final.

Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh has been Punjab Kings’ main man with the ball, having claimed 18 wickets in 16 games at an average of 26.55 and an economy of 8.79.

In terms of the head-to-head record between the sides, Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings have played each other 36 times, with both teams winning 18 times each.

The two teams have met three times this season, with PBKS winning once and RCB winning twice. Punjab won the first encounter of the season between the teams, while Bengaluru emerged triumphant in the second match and Qualifier 1.

Squads:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Mayank Agarawal, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Dar Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Tim Seifert, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Blessing Muzarabani, Nuwan Thushara, Mohit Rathee, Swastik Chikara, Abhinandan Singh

Punjab Kings: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Josh Inglis (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Kyle Jamieson, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harpreet Brar, Suryansh Shedge, Praveen Dubey, Xavier Bartlett, Vishnu Vinod, Yash Thakur, Aaron Hardie, Kuldeep Sen, Mitchell Owen, Harnoor Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyla Avinash. (ANI)