Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batter Virat Kohli played a key role as the franchise registered their first win at home in IPL 2025. They defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 11 runs in a thrilling encounter to notch up their first win at home this season.
At the heart of the win was Virat Kohli's 70 runs off 42 balls that set the platform for the big score. He and Devdutt Padikkal (50 runs off 27 balls) added a 95-run stand for the second wicket that allowed the lower order to flourish and take them past 200 runs.
This was the first win for RCB at home after five wins away from home. The franchise lost three games at home, and in all of them, they lost the toss.
Virat Kohli, speaking after the game, took a dig at the toss and highlighted that winning the toss was one of the challenges they faced as a side in home losses.
“The first challenge is winning the toss (chuckles). In the second half there is always dew. We've struggled to put on a par score,” Kohli said to Jio Hotstar after RCB's first win at home this season.
Kohli spoke about the effort put in by the batting lineup in this game. After the fifties from him and Padikkal, Tim David (23 runs off 15 balls) and Jitesh Sharma (20 runs off 10 balls) also played important cameos to help RCB post 205 runs for 5 wickets after their 20 overs. Phil Salt also played a key hand at the top, scoring 26 runs off 23 balls, giving RCB a fast start.
“Look, we've had three pretty average games at home and we discussed a few things we need to get right as a batting unit and we applied ourselves well to get the total on board," Kohli said, underlining the introspection that followed RCB’s string of home defeats. "The pitch wasn't as flat as the score makes it look. Dew made the ball come on nicely in the second half and credit to Rajasthan for coming out and playing some good shots" said Kohli.
Also Read: IPL 2025 Match 42 RCB vs RR Highlights: Virat Kohli & Phil Salt get RCB to a blazing start
Josh Hazlewood Gives RCB A Thrilling Win Over RR
Chasing 206 runs to win, RR was in with a shout after being 110 runs for 2 wickets around the 10th over. Then, they lost some wickets quickly as the momentum of the game shifted towards RCB. Dhruv Jurel (47 runs off 34 balls) then scored 22 runs off the 18th over by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Josh Hazlewood then bowled a brilliant 19th over, where he gave away just 1 run.
Yash Dayal then bowled the final over with RR needing 17 runs to win as they bottled another chase. Hazlewood had figures of 4 wickets for 33 runs, and he was named the Man of the Match. The Aussie pacer went past 50 IPL wickets in the match as the Royals lost their seventh game of the season and fifth on the trot.
