AHMEDABAD: Krunal Pandya was jumping up and down with his fists up at the short third-man. Punjab Kings’ Shashank Singh had sent Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacer Josh Hazlewood to the ropes on the fourth ball of the last over in the 2025 IPL final at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, on Tuesday night.
Krunal was not celebrating the fact that his teammate was hit for a four, but because he knew it did not matter. He knew he had won his fourth IPL trophy, and Royal Challengers Bengaluru had won their first. He knew no matter what happens in the next two deliveries, Ee saala cup namdu (this year, the cup is finally RCB’s).
Away from him in the deep midwicket boundary, Virat Kohli was struggling to keep it together. Right from the second ball of that Hazlewood over, Kohli had been shaking restlessly, waiting for it all to be over. He had turned towards AB de Villiers — a best friend and a former teammate — indicating that he was gonna cry. The tears dripped down over the next few deliveries before he eventually went down.
In the other part of the ground was Rajat Patidar — the injury replacement batter from 2022, who had now become the first male captain to win a trophy for the Bengaluru franchise. He was smiling, but his cheeks were red, eyes were wet. It was a common emotion that prevailed not just on the players who were in the field waiting for Hazlewood to complete the over, but also on the 70,000-odd fans who had turned up in RCB colours in the stands.
The moment they had been agonisingly waiting for finally came when Shashank smashed Hazlewood over the extra cover boundary. Nobody cared where the ball went or what the margin was. Not even the Punjab Kings team. They were too heartbroken to care. In fact, head coach Ricky Ponting would later ask the press corps whether the last ball was six and what the margin of defeat was.
The margin — no matter how small it was — did not matter. RCB and Kohli knew it too. They have been on the losing side far too many times. Not on Tuesday. Not in 2025. This IPL, right from the day the mega auction was over, RCB had the markings of a title-winning squad. This was not a squad built on superstar batters on whom they historically spent more than they should. This was a team built with match-winners, players with specified roles and an Indian core that complemented Kohli. This was a campaign built on multiple heroes from different parts of the country and the world who came together to make the dream come true.
Take Krunal. He had won three titles with Mumbai Indians and was with Lucknow Super Giants last three years. He came in as the most-experienced spinner on the second day. They signed him at a much lower price than what the big-name spinners went for on day one of the auction. Krunal might not be the star name who is a part of the Indian set-up, but a street-smart spinner who has thrived on big occasions. He came in with the confidence to say they will win it this time and did just that with a performance of a lifetime — 17 wickets at 22.29 and 8.23 economy.
Or Jitesh Shamra. Dinesh Karthik, who had retired to become a mentor and batting coach in the franchise, was hell bent on signing him for a reason. Over the last three years, despite not putting up big scores, Jitesh had cameos down the order for Punjab, which in fact earned him a brief stint with the Indian team. He ticked two big boxes — a keeper and a middle-order bat. He, too, took to the franchise and its fanbase with ease after the adulation he received during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy knockouts in Bengaluru. At the start of the season, he had said he would take care of everything in an interview with an online portal, and he did just that when it mattered the most while captaining the team in the absence of Patidar. His knock against LSG put RCB in the top two, and his taking down of Kyle Jamieson took RCB to 190 on Tuesday.
Or Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The veteran pacer was regarded as the best Indian T20 bowler by Karthik in the auction prep, and with good reason. He is one of the leading wicket-takers and has been a pillar for Sunrisers Hyderabad. He might not be the face of any team, but he quietly did his job season after season. He showed why Karthik rated him as highly, not just with wickets, but the two most important overs on Tuesday night. When the required run-rate was around 14, he delivered two overs in which he took two crucial wickets while just giving away 21 runs.
Or Phil Salt. The RCB management, including Mo Bobat and Karthik, were adamant on getting the Englishman as his approach in the powerplay would complement Kohli and allow him to bat in his template. In the business end of the league, he went back home after Qualifier 1 for the birth of his child and flew in on the morning of the final, took a sensational catch to set the tone and got his hands on the medal.
The story of Devdutt Padikkal, his replacement Suyash Shamra or Josh Hazlewood who was injured and came back from Australia for playoffs or Yash Dayal all tell a story of a tectonic shift in the way the franchise operated over the last few years. Not to mention their captain Patidar, who had injury concerns, knew he was always going to be under the radar, but remained unfazed to etch his name in the history books.
They gave their blood, sweat and everything for the franchise, its fans and of course, one man — Virat Kohli. “It was very difficult for me to get myself together (in the last over), but these guys. The whole tournament, everyone’s motivation was through the roof. They wanted to win it for RCB, for the franchise, for the management, and they all kept saying ‘we want to give the trophy in your hands’. It would not have been possible without these amazing bunch of players. It was honestly a dream year, absolutely perfect,” an emotional Kohli said with Krunal by his side.
It was a campaign where every single person in the franchise came together and gave their best performance for Kohli to finally fulfil his dream. There would be no exaggeration in saying that they won it for their ‘King Kohli’ rather than the senior statesman taking the franchise to glory. The perfect summation would be the final, where Kohli perhaps played the worst knock of the season, but the rest rallied around to give the adopted Bengaluru boy what he had yearned and longed for 18 years. “You are playing for Bengaluru for 18 years, I can tell you one thing. The city is yours, you are as much a Bengaluru boy as anybody else. I think tomorrow and in the coming days you will really experience the love this city has for you,” Mayank could be seen telling Kohli in a video shared by the franchise. “It will hit us when Bengaluru goes crazy tomorrow. This is without a doubt one of the most anticipated trophies in world sport. When we think about what our fans have gone through, what Virat has gone through, the magnitude of that will hit us,” Bobat would say in another video.
However, this is just the beginning. As said before, this is not the RCB of the 2010s. This is a team that has learnt how to win and knows what it feels like. They are going to do everything they can to keep doing that in the coming years. Bobat has already vouched for it. “Take time to look around and take in our specialities. Like we have done throughout the season, I am going to ask you to do something. I am going to ask you to really really get addicted to this feeling,” he told the players in the dressing room.
“Because this is a start. Not many teams have won back-to-back IPLs. It has happened twice before. Next year, we will have a final in Bengaluru, and we will go again. Get addicted to this feeling tonight; because of that feeling, the hunger to go again next year… It is that addiction to winning and winning that trophy and sharing this moment, and then spurs us on. We will back it up next year, and we will do that in front of our own,” he would add.
