RR beat RCB by 6 wickets, as a clearly underpaid 15-year old settled the Battle of Billionaires. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s scarcely believable 78 (26) made light work of the 201-run target that RCB had scraped and fought for in the first innings.
But, what happened beyond the headlines?
✍️ Written by Karan Jain, who runs CricNuance. You can follow him on X.
Despite ample seam, swing and bounce on offer in the first innings powerplay, RCB raced to 55/2 after just 4 overs. Frustratingly for RR’s pacers, they had done a lot right, but a quick outfield aided by pre-game showers amplified their mistakes.
Jofra Archer started off well with Phil Salt’s wicket off the first ball, but could very well argue that he should’ve had at least another couple in that first over. His second and third deliveries beat Devdutt Padikkal all ends up, but a thin edge ran for 4 – just past second slip’s hands. Off the final delivery, Virat Kohli picked up another 4 off an unplanned edge as his shot dissected the keeper and first slip.
In the second over, N’Andre Burder would induce far more swing, but was also far more erratic with his lines. Four wides were followed up with a peach of a delivery that swung into Kohli and nicked his inside edge – only to wildly swing past the keeper and go for another 4 runs. That’s 12 runs off lucky edges in the first two overs alone.
It seemed the tide had turned though. Kohli started anticipating the swing, and put away both Archer’s 3rd and Sandeep Sharma’s 4th over for multiple boundaries each as he swaggered to 31 off 13 with two overs of the powerplay left.
To counter Kohli, RR had a wildcard they could play – but one that could backfire spectacularly. On came Ravi Bishnoi, whom Kohli had only scored 19 off 22 against since 2022 with one dismissal.
On the flip side of this gamble was Bishnoi’s record in the powerplay. Since 2022, Bishnoi has bowled 13 powerplay overs in the IPL with a return of 108/0. Worse still, Rajat Patidar was on strike for the first ball of the 5th over. Patidar has a strike rate of 203 against all spin since 2024, and a strike rate of 240 against Bishnoi particularly.
For his first ball, the RR spinner took advantage of the movement off the air with the new ball, pinning Patidar back with a 101.2 KPH ball that spun onto the pads. A failed LBW appeal led to the second best outcome; a quick scrambled single that brought Kohli on strike.
Bishnoi repeated the trick on his second ball, but with a shorter ball. Kohli tried to swipe the ball across to deep midwicket, misjudged the bounce, and it bounced back to the bowler. On the third ball, Bishnoi went fuller on to the pads, and was easily flicked away for a single.
Back came Patidar, and Bishnoi returned to his quick, back-of-a-length googly that Patidar could only hit towards long-on for a single. The googly, which had made up all four balls so far, is Bishnoi’s safest delivery. He’s conceding just 7.2 RPO with the delivery in the 2026 IPL.
It’s also his most dangerous delivery. On the next ball to Kohli, the RR spinner saw the RCB opener charge down the pitch. He wanted to take aim at Bishnoi’s googly by sending it over covers with an inside-out shot. Bishnoi saw his opportunity and bowled the line and length that Kohli was expecting – but dropped his pace to 95.8 KPH. The ball cut inside Kohli’s bat and into the wicket. With the later scalp of Krunal Pandya, that took Bishnoi’s tally of 2026 IPL wickets to 9 – including 8 of googlies alone.
Coming into this game, RCB’s batting order had been largely settled. They had only lost their third wicket by the 12th (v SRH) and 14th (v CSK) overs respectively. Tonight, with the sudden loss of their top order before the powerplay was over, they panicked. Not wanting to expose Tim David and Romario Shepherd too early, Pandya and Jitesh Sharma were brought out early.
It didn’t matter. All four of RCB’s explosive finishers were back in the pavilion before the death overs had even begun. Despite rearguard action from Patidar and RCB debutant Venkatesh Iyer, their 201-run total was always under threat against RR’s proficient batters. And it all started with Ravi Bishnoi reversing his recent history to trigger an early collapse.
Data from Cricbuzz & Cricmetric.
✍️ Written by Tarutr Malhotra, who runs Best of Cricket.
RCB scored 58/3 in their first 29 balls tonight, and then scored 31/2 in their next 29 balls. Despite a blistering start by Virat Kohli & co, RCB’s “middle order” couldn’t capitalise on the advantage.
There was something odd about seeing RCB’s quartet of finishers walk in (and out) before the middle overs were even done. Krunal Pandya (5th over entry point), Jitesh Sharma (7th), Tim David (9th), & Romario Shepherd (11th) were all done before they even got started.
Apart from Shephard (22 off 11), none of them even broke the 150 SR mark tonight. All of RCB’s explosive finishers were used – and largely wasted – in the middle overs.
It felt like RCB were throwing fodder at RR’s cannons after Kohli’s wicket in the 5th over. They played multiple nightwatchmen in a T20 game, as they unsuccessfully tried to delay the entry of David & Shephard.
Which begs the obvious question; how proficient are RCB’s batters when asked to come out in the middle overs?
The graph above tracks a very simple data point – each RCB batter’s strike rate since 2023, broken down by entry point. In a league that’s moving towards entry points based on match-ups and phases of play, RCB have a gaping hole in the middle.
They’ve got excellent powerplay batters and death overs finishers, but just the one middle overs specialist. Rajat Patidar has been brilliant across the phase – his lowest SR by entry point is 130 in the 13th over. He was similarly fantastic today, stitching together multiple partnerships together over the course of his 63-run, 40-ball innings.
However, RCB don’t really have anyone else to complement him in the middle overs.
Devdutt Padikkal shows more promise as an early replacement for a powerplay batter – which makes sense considering his roots as an opener – while RCB’s quartet of finishers are more comfortable accelerating at the death. Only Sharma has shown any ability to come in earlier – and his strike rate drops off a cliff if he’s introduced before the 12th over.
All this points towards a very simple conclusion; if RCB lose more than 3 wickets in the powerplay (leaving Patidar to babysit the finishers), they struggle in the middle overs. The numbers from 2025 back this up – in games where they lost 3 wickets early on, they scored at a MO run rate of 6.93. In all other games, they scored at a MO run rate of 8.9.
The good news is that it only happened three times in 2025. Two were losses – to GT and PBKS – and the third was a routine win while chasing down a simple 162-run target against DC. The bad news is that Phil Salt is in terrible form. He’s only scored one half-century in his last 10 T20 games for club and country; a run which includes games against Italy and Scotland.
Salt already has two single digit scores in 3 IPL games this season; last year he only had four single digit scores (and no ducks) across 15 IPL games. The English opener does not look ready to carry RCB’s scoring burden at the moment, which puts added pressure on Kohli, Padikkal & Patidar to shepherd RCB through the middle overs at a high clip without losing their wicket.
This is an admittedly nit-picky point. RCB still scored 200-plus tonight, and might’ve won barring a sensational innings from a generational batter. But, those are the stakes in the IPL. RCB are gunning for a second straight title, and fell painfully short against the first real contender they faced.
Data from our new database.
✍️ Written by Sharath P.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi continued his aggressive and impressive start to the season, scoring 78 (26) to make light work of RCB’s total of 201. Along the way, he became the leading scorer in the IPL this season with 200 runs in 4 games, at a barely believable 266.67 strike rate. The closest pretender to that throne? Tim David’s 99 runs at 225.
Much like his previous adversaries, RCB had come prepared. Or, as prepared as you can be when facing a constantly evolving talent like Sooryavanshi. Bhuvneshwar Kumar had a simple plan – try to cramp the 15-year old. The first over showed how the strategy could be effective if executed perfectly.
After negotiating a couple of deliveries on the leg side that cramped him for room, Sooryavanshi opened his account with a straight drive off a full in-swinging delivery, displaying balance and timing. Although he was briefly contained by tight lines aimed at his body, he responded effectively to width, registering his first boundary with a sliced shot over point off a slower ball outside off.
The teenager didn’t face a ball in the second over, and came back on strike in the third versus RCB’s own youngster, Abhinandan Singh. The Yash Dayal replacement has not had the best start to the season – conceding 84/2 in his first two games – and was a gamble to stop the hottest batter in world cricket.
Predictably, Sooryavanshi collected three boundaries and a six in five deliveries against Abhinandan, exploiting his full-length balls with clean ground strokes and converting a straighter delivery into a maximum over deep mid-wicket. Notably, even a mistimed inside edge resulted in four runs, indicating both intent and a degree of fortune working in his favor.
In the fourth over, Josh Hazlewood tried something to keep it varied against the teenager. Hazlewood went close, and got cut. He went wide and got lofted and driven. He went short and got pulled for 6. Despite a fairly smart, varied, well-executed over, Hazlewood conceded 18 runs in 6 balls.
Similarly, Kumar’s fifth over produced another couple of 6s and a boundary – with drives through long on and cuts over backward point punctuating the minimal pressure of the occasional bodyline dots.
Kumar and Hazlewood largely persisted with a short length strategy against Sooryavanshi because it had troubled him in the past. In 2025, Sooryavanshi scored the most runs off pulls, but at an abysmal control percentage of 36.36%. Tonight, he comfortably and repeatedly dispatched the bouncers away to the ropes.
Sooryavanshi struck at 206.58 v pace in 2025, and the number is holding steady this year. He also managed to strike at 186.27 against spin – with a couple of caveats. Leggies held him to 144.44, and offies held him to 143.75.
Once the fielders were pushed back in the 7th over, Krunal Pandya was brought on to stem the tide. Sooryavanshi – who averages 8 against SLAs this season – stuck to singles for the over, before ending it with a well-timed flick over square leg for 6.
RCB, who had sacrificed Suyash Sharma for Venkatesh Iyer as the impact sub while batting, had no leg spinner. RCB, who have only Jacob Bethell amongst realistic bench options, had no off-spinner. And, so they turned to Tim David who bowled his first over in the IPL in his 53rd game.
An early dot created hope for the part-timer strategy, but Sooryavanshi quickly brought the Aussie back to reality. Consecutive 6s punished David’s inconsistent lines and lengths, and ended RCB’s off-spin experiment early.
Pandya eventually picked up the teenager’s wicket in the 9th over when a tantalising arm ball on the offside was dispatched to the deep midwicket boundary fielder. But, the damage was done. 78 (26) with eight 6s and seven 4s at a control percentage of 84.6% killed this game off before it could become a contest.
Data from ESPNcricinfo, & Cricmetric.
✍️ Written by Tarun Pratap, who runs The Rank Turner. Follow him on X.
For the first time this season, RR lost a wicket in the powerplay. Yashasvi Jaiswal’s dismissal in the second over meant their openers’ streak of electric starts was broken. Dhruv Jurel, promoted to No. 3 this season, seamlessly stepped into that gap to score an all-important 81 (43) that took RR home.
Jurel started in Vaibhav Sooryavanshi’s slipstream, scoring just 3 runs off 4 balls as their partnership accelerated to 52 runs. But in the 6th over, he seized on the frenzy caused by his teenage partner’s batting, and hit Abhinandan Singh for 24 runs. The RCB rookie started the over with a shortish ball on hip that Jurel hit for 4 and ended with short too, but in between he went length, back of length, length and full toss, and Jurel could not miss.
When Sooryavanshi eventually holed out, Jurel sat on 38 (15) – but only 14 (9) without that Abhinandan over. That’s when the RR keeper switched into the second phase of his innings. After cruising alongside Sooryavanshi, Jurel reigned in his attacking prowess to see off RCB’s singular spin threat.
He scored just 7 off 8 in the next five overs – including a total of 11 off 8 v Krunal Pandya that only looked that good because of a first-ball 4 scored when Sooryavanshi was still at the crease.
Instead, Jurel consolidated as RR went through a mini-collapse on the other end. Shimron Hetmyer and Riyan Parag quickly followed Sooryavanshi back to the pavilion, while Ravindra Jadeja – the worst lower order bat in the league – nearly followed suit on the first ball of the 14th over versus Josh Hazlewood.
After going five overs without a boundary shot attempt, Jurel switched gears again. Jadeja’s survival – and Pandya completing 4 overs – brought the game back into focus. RR needed 47 off 41, and Jurel accelerated. He scored a 4 off his first delivery against Hazlewood, and put together the third phase of his innings where he scored 36 off 20 to finish off the chase with 2 overs remaining.
Jurel’s innings tonight, and his performances so far, have justified RR’s decision to promote him up the order. Not only do the statistics back him up – his IPL strike rate v pace is 176.4 compared to 130.4 v spin – but his decision-making tonight was spot on. RCB’s batting was marred by a series of accomplished batters throwing their wickets away, while Jurel made sure that RR would not make the same mistake.
Jurel’s innings will go under the radar tonight because of Sooryavanshi’s heroics, but RR needed him as much as they needed their prodigious teenager. He scored 81 (43), an incredible innings by any metric, and provided the exact anchor-to-accelerator innings that RR so desperately missed last year.
Data from Cricmetric.