GT smile, win and roar in an evening to neglect for RCB and Virat Kohli

It’s a small sample size of only two games but RCB have been pretty clear about their batting intent this year. Having missed out on playoff berths multiple times because of net run rate woes, this summer their batters have decided to come out all guns blazing.

Phil Salt, Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar were relentless in their chase against Kolkata Knight Riders last Saturday.

On Friday, while Kohli struggled for the better part of his innings, Salt delivered again with a 16-ball 31, Devdutt Padikkal smashed 27 off 14 and the captain Patidar, held the innings together with a 32-ball 51.

Still, CSK fought back with the ball as you would expect them to. Noor Ahmed, their Afghan magician, was once again the pick of the bowlers and snared the important wickets of Salt (thanks to MS Dhoni’s whiplash glovework), Kohli and the dangerous Jitesh Sharma.

So good was that CSK bowling effort in the second half of the innings, that a score less than 180 was very likely for RCB. However, Tim David changed all that with some sensational hitting in the last over.

David, one of Australia’s most thrilling T20 cricketers, took on Sam Curran, hitting him for 3 sixes in the final over to take RCB to a daunting 196 for 7.

Gujarat Titans demolished Royal Challengers Bengaluru to storm to their second successive win in IPL 2025. Chasing 170 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, GT romped home with plenty to spare.

Jos Buttler, Sai Sudharsan and Mohammed Siraj were the architects of a fine 8-wicket victory for the Titans, who had defeated Mumbai Indians at the weekend to open their tally of points.

GT want to be more dominat with the bat in the Powerplay and while that is a mission yet to be accomplished this season, they were clinical in their pursuit of a middling total in Bengaluru.

Shubhman Gill was dimissed for a run-a-ball 14 by Bhuvneshwar Kumar but there was no looking back for GT from thereon. A 75-run stand between Buttler and Sudharsan put them on course for a big win.

Buttler continued his fine form this summer and followed up scores of 54 and 39 with another half-century while Sherfane Rutherford walked in to finish what the side started at the top of the game, thanks to a fiery Mohammed Siraj.

Siraj played for RCB for 7 seasons but when he turned up to play an IPL game on Tuesday, it was for a different team.

Siraj was virtually unplayable in a spell of 4-0-19-3. He was rewarded with the wickets of Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt and Liam Livingstone. The pacer returned with a dot ball percentage of more than 50 per cent and conceded just 1 four and 1 six in a scintillating spell which broke the back of the RCB batting line-up.

It was an evening RCB would like to forget quickly. The slide started with Virat Kohli falling cheaply to Arshad Khan, and it could have been a whole lot worse than the 169 for 8 they eventually got had it not been for a Liam Livingstone half-century, which only came because of a dropped chance.

This defeated was the first for RCB this season – they next face Mumbai Indians who are riding high from their thumping of Kolkata Knight Riders. GT will travel to the batting paradise of Hyderabad to take on Sunrisers Hyderabad.