RCB's Ideal Support-Cast to Kohli's Brilliance

RCB are up against Delhi Capitals in Raipur in the final league game of the ninth edition of the IPL. At stake is a spot in the playoffs for both teams. RCB's strong net run-rate would guarantee a top-two finish.**

Kohli's Dominance

Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers are dismissed within the first 15 minutes of the chase, but Virat Kohli holds his end strong to hit the winning runs, extending a season of unmatched dominance.

2025: A Different Narrative

For a record fifth time, Kohli went past 600 runs in an IPL season. Heading into the last league game against LSG, RCB had won four of their five games chasing. Their only defeat came on the only instance when Kohli missed his fifty.

Jitesh Sharma's Redemption

Jitesh Sharma produced an upper-cut off Pat Cummins for a first-ball six, but a mix-up with Rajat Patidar later triggered a collapse, and they fell way short. On Tuesday, he redeemed himself, propelling his side to their highest-ever run-chase to seal them a spot in Qualifier 1.

RCB's Class of 2025

RCB's class of 2025 is in stark contrast to those from yesteryear, the sum of its parts contributing to greater success as a whole. They have had eight different players winning 10 Player of the Match awards between them, the most for any team. Eight of them have come for batting performances: two to Rajat Patidar, and one each to six others.

Historical Struggles

Historically, RCB have struggled to find enough batting depth, their success largely revolving around select individuals. Jacques Kallis led their batting in 2009 and 2010, and Chris Gayle, Kohli and AB de Villiers took over thereafter.

Recent Years

As for recent years, they continued to be solid at the top in the last cycle (2022-24), their opening partnership average of 46.15 being way clear of the next best (37.62 for SRH). The batting averages for No.3 to 8 though, stood ninth among the 10 teams (23.53), and while they struck at 151.28 (the highest), Dinesh Karthik and Patidar were the only mainstays (Patidar missed the whole of 2023 with injury).

This Year's Upgrade

This year though, they have had enough bases covered. The Phil Salt-Kohli pairing has been an upgrade: RCB's opening partnership has gone at 10.36 an over in 2025, their best in an edition, bettering 9.95 from 2024.

Middle-Order Strength

There have been 68 Indian players who have aggregated 2000-plus runs in Men's T20 cricket till date, just six of them striking at 150-plus, and two feature in RCB's middle-order: Patidar (156.22) and Jitesh (151.83).

Impactful Replacements

The replacements have been impactful too: Jacob Bethell in Salt's absence earlier, and Mayank Agarwal more recently, who is in for Devdutt Padikkal.

Middle-Order Significance

A measure of how significant that facet of a batting line-up is: only three players have scored 10 or more 50-plus scores from No.5 or below for a single team in the IPL history: MS Dhoni for CSK (17), Kieron Pollard for MI (14) and Andre Russell for KKR (11).

RCB's 2025 Feat

These players have delivered cameos, and longer innings when the situation demanded, as Jitesh showed on Wednesday. There have been five 50-plus scores from No.5 or below for RCB in IPL 2025, the most for them in an edition, surpassing four in 2014. Crucially, all five this year have all been by different players: David, Liam Livingstone, Krunal, Shepherd and Jitesh, contrary to two each by de Villiers and Yuvraj Singh in 2014.

Batting Across Phases

Back to 2016

Chasing 209 in the final, RCB were going strong at 114/0 (and subsequently 140/1 during the 13th over) with Gayle and Kohli flying. However, the middle-order crumbled post the latter's dismissal to shatter several dreams. They have faced a similar situation fairly earlier this time around, albeit against the weakest bowling line-up of the competition. It all augurs well ahead of the playoffs, and on the bowling front, Josh Hazlewood's return adds a further lift.