IPL 2025 concluded with a new champion, RCB, ending their 17-year drought. This season will be remembered for ages for breaking numerous unbroken streaks and records, and turning the tables upside down. IPL 2025 was no less than a heart-wrenching tournament for fans around the world.
This season has witnessed many nail-biting encounters. Let’s look at the best among them.
RCB vs CSK ( Match no.52 )
The southern derby took place at Bangalore on 3rd May. CSK won the toss and chose to bowl. RCB openers Virat Kohli and Jacob Bethell gave a thundering start of 97 runs in 9.5 overs for the first wicket. Jacob Bethell scored his maiden IPL fifty ( 55 off 33 ). Soon after him, Kohli lost his wicket ( 62 off 33 ) in the 13th over when the score was 121. After that, CSK bowlers came back in the game, bowling some tight overs and picking a few wickets. RCB batters couldn’t maintain the momentum created by the openers.
RCB were 159/5 in 18 overs. Khaleel Ahmed came to bowl the 19th over with Romario Shepherd on strike. This over changed the entire momentum of the match. Romario smashed Khaleel for 32 runs, including a no-ball. Khaleel conceded 33 runs in that over.
The last over was bowled by Matheesha Pathirana, who was brilliant in that game until that over ( 3-15-3 ). But he also lost his rhythm in the last over and conceded 21 runs. Romario scored his maiden IPL fifty in just 14 balls. This is the second joint-fastest half-century in IPL with Pat Cummins and KL Rahul.
With the help of his knock, RCB posted 213/5 on the board. They scored 54 runs in the last 2 overs.
CSK started their innings chasing a massive total of 214. Shaik Rasheed ( 14 off 10 ) couldn’t create much impact. Another young opener, Ayush Mhatre, set the stage on fire by smashing 28 runs in the 4th over bowled by Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. That over set the tone for the chase.
Sam Curran ( 5 off 5 ) didn’t stand for a long time in the middle. Jadeja walked in at no.4. This partnership scored boundaries in every over and were on par with the required run rate. The massive partnership of 114 runs came to an end in the 17th over.
Lungi Ngidi dismissed Ayush Mhatre for 94 runs off 48 balls when the team score was 172 in 16.2 overs. Dewald Brevis went for a golden duck in the very next ball. Ngidi bowled a full toss and down the leg, Brevis got it in his pad and ran for a single.
Ngidi appealed and umpire raised his finger. But the batters didn’t notice that and ran for a double. After that they discussed and appealed for a DRS, but they ran out of the time already. So, Brevis has to walk back. That was a game changing moment in the innings.
It was clearly missing the stumps in the replay. It was a blunder from the umpire. That double wicket over changed the game towards RCB. Suyash Sharma bowled the next over and gave just 6 runs without conceding any boundaries. He bowled that shutdown over which RCB needed badly.
CSK couldn’t find the momentum back and lost the match by just 2 runs. Yash Dayal bowled a brilliant last over by dismissing MS Dhoni ( 12 off 8 ) and restricting Dube from scoring 5 runs off 3 balls.
PBKS vs MI ( Qualifier 2 )
It was a knockout match between PBKS and MI at Ahmedabad. MI batted first and posted 203 runs on the board with the help of useful contributions from Suryakumar Yadav ( 44 off 26 ), Tilak Verma ( 44 off 29 ), Jonny Bairstow ( 38 off 24 ) and Naman Dhir ( 37 off 18 ).
They still fell short of 10 to 15 runs, which Suryakumar Yadav also mentioned in the break after the first innings. Captain Hardik Pandya ( 15 off 13 ) struggled to time the ball well in the death overs.
PBKS started their innings and their openers were removed quickly ( Prabhsimran 6 off 9 and Priyansh Arya 20 off 10 ). Josh Inglis set the tone for the chase by smashing 20 runs of the 5th over by Jasprit Bumrah. He scored a useful cameo of 38 runs from 21 balls.
Captain Shreyas and Nehal Wadhera joined hands for a partnership. Hardik Pandya made some blunders in the bowling rotations. He didn’t bring Mitchell Santner in the middle overs who gave just 15 run in his 2 overs just because of the left hander- left arm spinner match up against Nehal Wadhera.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya brought Reece Topley in the middle over who is not known for old ball skills. Shreyas smashed 3 sixes of him and gained momentum in his innings. MI bowlers didn’t have proper plans against Shreyas. they were feeding him with fuller length deliveries and got smashed for sixes.
Shreyas also tackled the yorkers from Bumrah and Boult by ducking them in the gap of third man and keeper for boundaries. PBKS finished the chase in 19 overs. Shreyas stood tall by scoring 87* runs off 41 balls. This was the highest chase in IPL knockouts history and also the first time MI has failed to defend 200-plus totals.
PBKS vs KKR ( Match no.31 )
PBKS and KKR faced at Mullanpur. PBKS started the innings aggressively by scoring 39 runs for the first wicket in 3.2 overs. Harshit Rana dismissed Prabhsimran Singh ( 30 off 15 ). Shreyas Iyer was dismissed for a duck in the same over. The batting collapse started there.
PBKS batters didn’t reach the pitch well and went too aggressively and got out playing the wrong shot. PBKS were all out for 111 runs in 15.3 overs. All the KKR bowlers shared wickets among them. Harshit Rana picked 3, Narine and Varun picked 2 each and Nortje and Vaibhav sharing 1 each.
KKR lost both their openers for just 7 runs in 1.2 overs. KKR batters’ Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi saved the team from there and built a partnership of 55 runs. Rahane was dismissed for 17 runs in the 8th over when the team score was 62.
It was Yuzvendra Chahal’s first over and Rahane was given LBW. But in the replay, it was clearly missing the stumps. But, Rahane didn’t review and walked back. That wicket changed the momentum and PBKS sneaked into the game.
Chahal picked three more wickets in his next 2 overs and ran through the middle order of KKR. Glenn Maxwell dismissed the left hander Venkatesh Iyer. KKR went from 62/2 to 79/8. Chahal came to bowl his last over an Andre Russell smashed him for 16 runs.
KKR were 95/8 in 14 overs. Arshdeep Singh bowled the next over to Vaibhav Arora. Vaibhav faced 5 balls but got out in the last ball. Andre Russell was dismissed by Marco Jansen on the first ball of the next over. PBKS won the match by 16 runs.
KKR were all out for 95 runs. This is the lowest score defended in IPL history. They broke the 16 year old record of CSK who defended 116 runs in 2009 against PBKS.
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