New Delhi: Nehal Wadhera impressed under pressure with a calm knock as Punjab Kings beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 5 wickets in a rain-shortened Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 match on Friday. The game was reduced to 14 overs per side after a delayed start at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru due to persistent rain.
Chasing 96 runs in 14 overs, PBKS completed the task, after a few hiccups, in 12.1 overs to bag a victory in the 34th match of IPL 2025. As wickets were falling from the other end, Wadhera kept his calm in the low-scoring thriller smashing 33 runs in just 19 balls with three sixes and as many boundaries. Openers Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh contributed 16 and 13 runs respectively while skipper Shreyas Iyer flopped as he could just muster 7 runs.
Josh Inglis also contributed 14 runs while Marcus Stoinis (7 not out) scored the winning runs for the side with a boundary. For RCB, Josh Hazlewood starred with the ball claiming three wickets while Bhuvneshwar Kumar scalped two wickets for Bengaluru.
Bowlers shine for PBKS
Earlier in the first innings, Tim David smashed a counter-attacking half-century to lift RCB to 95 runs in the rain-curtailed match in Bengaluru. After they were asked to bat first, RCB lost the wickets at regular intervals. Apart from David scoring an unbeaten 50 runs off 26 balls studded with five boundaries and three sixes, skipper Rajat Patidar accumulated useful 23 runs while the rest of the batters in the camp failed to score.
For the Punjab Kings, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Marco Jansen and Harpreet Brar all contributed with the ball picking up two wickets each while Xavier Bartlett also contributed with a wicket. This was the fifth victory for Punjab Kings while the Royal Challengers suffered their third loss in the league.
Punjab Kings beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru by five wickets in their rain-curtailed Indian Premier League
match on Friday. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
