IPL Pulse: See you soon

RCB defended their title and made it look easy. The Buttler gamble at No. 4 backfired badly. Venkatesh Iyer and Kohli got RCB off to a blazing start. GT fought back through Rashid but ice-cold Kohli didn't relent.

A Virat Kohli special in the final indeed happened. Smashing his fastest ever IPL fifty (off 25 balls), Kohli aced another chase and finished with 75* off 42.

Awards

• Fated-Furies-Fulfilled: Virat Kohli for hitting the title-winning six.
• Prescribed-Patience: Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for winning a car he cannot drive for at least three years.
• Vice-Grip: Sai Sudharsan for not getting out hit-wicket a third consecutive time.
• Un-Vice-Grip: Jordan Cox and Shubman Gill for dropped catches.
• Slippery-Syllables: Ravi Shastri for addressing Shubman Gill as 'Shubnam'.

Rasikh Dar and Venkatesh Iyer played crucial roles in RCB's title defence. RCB were without Yash Dayal; Rasikh filled the void and grew into a reliable all-phase bowler. Iyer patiently waited and stepped in wherever required – Impact Player, middle-order dasher, and finally opener. More on how they gave RCB the luxury of options.

Quotes

• Rajat Patidar: "Never dreamt" of captaining RCB and lifting a trophy. "It was all written."
• Vaibhav Sooryavanshi: "Feeling a little pressure because I'm here for an interview."
• Virat Kohli: "Super young players pushing you all the time" is an "exciting situation."
• Krunal Pandya: Winning IPL trophies is like having kids – "you can't pick" a favourite.
• Rajat Patidar: "Ee Salanu Cup Namdu."

Edition Records

• Most runs: 27,450
• Highest runs/wicket: 31.26
• Highest run-rate: 9.88
• Most fours: 2,332
• Most sixes: 1,426
• Most individual hundreds: 15
• Most 200-plus totals: 65
• Most successful 200-plus chases: 17

With the squeezed calendar, the powers that be are considering splitting the tournament into two, staging the second half in Sept-Oct.

Reckless prediction for tonight: It was all just a dream – you wake up on March 28, 2026.