Then the RCB spinners came to the fore, and it was one-way traffic thereon. Krunal Pandya picked 2 for 25 in his four overs, Suyash Sharma returned 2 for 26 as RCB put a lid on the scoring in the middle overs. Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar then put on a death-bowling masterclass, hardly giving PBKS an inch.

In the chase, Arshdeep Singh got Phil Salt for the fourth time in T20s, but Kohli and Padikkal added 103 off 69 balls for the second wicket to keep RCB on track. Even as Padikkal and Patidar fell, Kohli held his own to remain unbeaten on 73 off 54 as RCB kept their 100% away record intact.

There is an inevitability when it comes to Kohli and chasing middling totals. He seems to have the scoring all mapped out. How many runs to get, the required rate, when to attack, when to hold himself back. A 158-chase gave him all those liberties. He hit five fours in his first 20 balls, all inside the powerplay. Then for the next 24 balls, he hit none. He was content with taking the ones and the twos, handing back the strike to the more aggressive Padikkal, but ensured he stayed put. He struck two fours and a six after recording his fifty off 43 balls, and stayed unbeaten till the end to take RCB over the line with plenty to spare.

Kohli’s 73* was his 67th fifty-plus score in the IPL, which is the most for any batter in the history of the league. That it came in an RCB win will please Kohli to no end.

It’s been a patchy IPL 2025 for Padikkal. In fact, it’s been a patchy couple of years in the IPL. His last fifty in the league came in IPL 2023, incidentally against PBKS when he was playing for Rajasthan Royals. But when it mattered, he’s come good.

Padikkal was beaten on the upper-cut first ball. That didn’t deter him, and he went again the next ball and carved Arshdeep over the keeper for four. With Kohli going strong, he took the aggressive route. There was an all-run four before he thumped Xavier Bartlett across the line for six. Harpreet Brar was spanked for four before Yuzvendra Chahal was whacked across the line for six. Padikkal raced to his fifty off 30 balls.

He got a high-five from Kohli, and as he raised his bat, for the first time in 14 IPL innings and the first time since May 2023, there was a certain amount of relief on Padikkal’s face.

He celebrated by going 4 and 6 against Marcus Stoinis before finally holding out to long-on for a 35-ball 61 but not before giving RCB a certain amount of cruise control in the chase.

The story, however, looked quite different six overs into the match. Bhuvneshwar, who has a good match-up against Prabhsimran, started with a two-run first over. The next five, though, belonged to PBKS. Priyansh Arya’s pick-up pull off Yash Dayal got the hosts’ six counter running. He drove Dayal through covers again before Prabhsimran smashed Bhuvneshwar for three fours in the third over: a guide past short third, a slap through point and pull through midwicket.

Arya and Prabhsimran took 23 off Hazlewood’s first two overs. Arya fell to Krunal, his top-edge going as far as mid-off but at 62 for 1 after six, the powerplay was PBKS’ all the way through.

RCB have often relied on their pacers for the wickets so far this season. On Sunday, it was the RCB spinners coming to the fore. Prabhsimran failed to clear long-on first ball after the powerplay and was caught by David at long-on. Shreyas Iyer then fell soon after for 6 caught splendidly by Krunal moving to his left from long-on with Romario Shepherd picking his first wicket for the season. It’s been an all-or-nothing season for Iyer. In eight innings, he’s had three fifty-plus and five sub-ten scores.

A needless run out had Nehal Wadhera walking back before Suyash sent back Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis in a single over as PBKS slipped to 114 for 6 after 14. PBKS managed only 67 runs and lost five wickets in the middle overs (between seven to 17), and that was always going to hurt them.

By the time the 17th over arrived, Marco Jansen and Shashank Singh were relatively set. Both these batters have an impressive death-overs strike rate and can hit a long ball. Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood though had other ideas.

The duo put in a proper masterclass in death bowling and left PBKS nowhere. According to ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data, the duo landed eight yorkers in the last four overs, and gave away just one boundary – a six off the final ball of the innings. PBKS did not lose a wicket in these four overs but could only manage 28 runs, and that was never going to be enough.

Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 159 for 3 in 18.5 overs (Virat Kohli 73*, Devuutt Padikkal 61, Rajat Patidar 12; Jitesh Sharma 11*; Arshdeep Singh 1-26, Harpreet Brar 1-27, Yuzvendra Chahal 1-36) beat  Punjab Kings 157 for 6 in 20 overs (Priyansh Arya 22, Prabhsimran Singh 33, Josh Inglis 29, Shashank Singh 31*, Marco Jansen 25*; Krunal Pandya  2-25,Romairo Shepherd 1-18,  Suyash Sharma 2-26) by seven wickets

[Cricinfo]