New Delhi: Rajasthan Royals (RR) registered their second win of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on Saturday, defeating arch-rivals Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 50 runs to spoil their homecoming. The two teams locked horns at the New Chandigarh Stadium in Mullanpur, and the home side was given a reality check, enduring their first loss of the season.
Sanju Samson, who was featured for RR as a pure batter for the first three matches, returned to his captainship duties in the game and got back to winning ways straight away. With this, he surpassed the legendary Shane Warne for registering the most wins as the skipper of the Royals in the IPL. Warne had 31 wins to his credit in 55 matches, and Sanju climbed to 32 after beating PBKS, which was his 62nd game as RR skipper.
Most wins as RR captain (IPL)
32 – Sanju Samson (62 matches)
31 – Shane Warne (55 matches)
18 – Rahul Dravid (34 matches)
15 – Steven Smith (27 matches)
9 – Ajinkya Rahane (24 matches)
MOOD 🔥🔝 pic.twitter.com/Pp6vwuxjg9
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) April 5, 2025
The newly-constructed Mullanpur ground hasn’t been into the picture that much but it is interesting to know that the 170-plus target have been defended successfully 9 out of 10 times in T20s at this venue. This was the case on Saturday evening when RR thwarted PBKS’ attempts to chase 206 runs, restricting them at just 155. At this venue, the Kings have lost five out of six games now.
Iyer’s juggernaut halted
Shreyas Iyer has been in some form in the ongoing season of the cash-rich league as he guided his new-found home PBKS to two successive wins, against Gujarat Titans (GT) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), before going down against RR. Iyer was the skipper of the title-winning Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) last season and thus had a winning streak of eight games which crashed on Saturday. He too, has equalled Shane Warne though.
Most consecutive wins as an IPL captain
10 – Gautam Gambhir (2014-15)
8 – Shane Warne (2008)
8 – Shreyas Iyer (2024-25)
7 – MS Dhoni (2013)
Sanju Samson returned as the skipper of RR in their fourth fixture, against PBKS, on Saturday and straight away got to winning ways, also overtaking Shane Warne for a huge feat. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
