Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Punjab Kings by 8 wickets in the first qualifier of IPL 2025. With this win, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru team has confirmed its place in the final. Punjab Kings batted first at Mullanpur Stadium in Chandigarh and scored 101 runs after losing all wickets in 14.1 overs. In response, Royal Challengers Bangalore scored 106 runs for two wickets in 10 overs and won the match, just to enter in the Finals of Indian Premier League 2025.
Chasing the target of 102 runs, Royal Challengers Bangalore got the first setback in the fourth over. Virat Kohli was dismissed after scoring 12 runs in 12 balls. Mayank Agarwal was dismissed after scoring 19 runs in 13 balls. Mushir showed him the way to the pavilion. Phil Salt returned unbeaten after scoring 56 runs in 27 balls. Captain Rajat Patidar scored 15 runs in 8 balls and remained not out. Also the winning shot too came from his bat only, where he sent the ball to the six runs.

Punjab Kings, got the first setback in the second over. Opener Priyansh Arya was dismissed after scoring seven runs in 5 balls. Yash Dayal got him caught by Krunal Pandya. Prabhsimran Singh was dismissed after scoring 18 runs in 10 balls. Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed him. Josh Hazlewood showed the way to the pavilion to Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer. Josh Inglis could only score 4 runs in 7 balls. Nehal Vadhera was dismissed by Yash Dayal. He scored 8 runs in 10 balls.
Mushir Khan could not open the account, he was LBW by Suyash. Suyash got the third success by dismissing Marcus Stynes. Harpreet scored 4 runs in 11 balls. Josh Hazlewood and Suyash Sharma took three wickets each for Bangalore, while Yash Dayal took two wickets. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Romario Shepherd got one wicket each. Punjab Kings still have a chance to reach the final, as they will also play the second qualifier, where they will face the team that wins the eliminator match between Mumbai and Gujarat.
Rajat Patidar Joins the List of Veterans who took RCB to the Finals

After waiting for 9 years, Royal Challengers Bangalore finally made it to the finals of IPL. In the first qualifier match played at Mullanpur Stadium, Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Punjab Kings by 8 wickets. With this victory, Rajat Patidar has joined the list of veteran captains who took RCB to the finals. He has a chance to create history by making RCB the champions of IPL 2025. Fans hope that he also becomes the first captain to win the trophy and end the drought of 18 years.
Anil Kumble was the First Captain

Royal Challengers Bangalore were taken to the finals for the first time in the year 2009 under Anil Kumble’s captaincy. Here they had to play against Deccan Chargers and the team could not finish and remained one step away from the trophy.
Daniel Vettori was the Second Captain

Royal Challengers Bangalore reached the final for the second time in 2011. This time the team was led by Kiwi legend Daniel Vettori. In 2011, they lost against Chennai and RCB had to be content with being runner-up for the second time.
Virat Kohli was the Third Captain

For the third and last time, then Royal Challengers Bangalore (now Royal Challengers Bengaluru) played the IPL final in 2016 where Virat Kohli was in charge of the team. Under the captaincy of Virat Kohli, RCB had to face defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
RCB Reached the Final for the Fourth Time

Royal Challengers Bangalore have made it to the final for the fourth time in the history of IPL. RCB made it to the final for the first time in 2009 but had to face defeat at the hands of Deccan Chargers. Deccan won this match by 6 runs. In 2011, the team lost against Chennai Super Kings. Chennai won this match by 58 runs. In 2016, the RCB team was in great form but the Sunrisers Hyderabad team became the champion for the first time by winning a thrilling match by 8 runs.
Who is RCB’s Lucky Charm?
It is said that to get success in any work, a little luck is also needed along with hard work. This time this luck is in favor of Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Actually, the leader of the pace attack of this team and Australian legend Josh Hazlewood has not lost in the final match till date. The team for which he has participated has always won the title. He first played the final of Champions League T20 with Sydney Sixers in 2012. In this, the Sydney team won.

Then in 2015, he played the final of the ODI World Cup for Australia and made his team the champion. After this, in 2020, he made Sydney Sixers win the final. In IPL 2021, he played for Chennai Super Kings. CSK became the champion that year. At the same time, he played the 2021 T20 World Cup for Australia and the ODI World Cup in 2023, in this way he has played 6 finals so far and won all. Seeing this record of his, RCB fans are also hoping for victory now.
Hazelwood’s Performance in IPL 2025
Josh Hazelwood has performed brilliantly in IPL 2025. Josh took 3 wickets for 21 runs in the Qualifier 1 match. Hazlewood broke the back of Punjab Kings and took the wickets of Josh Inglis, Shreyas Iyer and Azmatullah Omarzai. With this brilliant performance, he made a big record in his name. Actually, Hazlewood is the first foreign bowler of RCB to take three wickets in the playoffs. Hazlewood has taken 21 wickets in 11 matches so far this season at an average of 15.80.
RCB in the Final after 9 Years

Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Punjab Kings by 8 wickets to make it to the finals of IPL 2025. This is the fourth time that the RCB team has reached the finals of IPL. With this, the captain of the team has joined the list of veteran players. Royal Challengers Bangalore won the first qualifier by 8 wickets. In this match played in Mullanpur, it defeated Punjab Kings by 8 wickets. RCB had a target of 102 runs to win, which it easily achieved by losing 2 wickets.