PBKS' strength turns into weakness as RCB brutally expose their batting in IPL final, beat Iyer and Co to maiden title

Scaling the summit is taxing. The right sort of motivation needs to be found, along with adequate geeing and egging on to ensure track of the goal is not lost. The right tools also need to be identified, and the circumstances analysed.

The first step, quite often, may seem the toughest. Just because it is, well, not something you do every day. But once that is traversed, everything feels a little more doable. The peak appears closer, the ground seems farther away, and the entire project feels…achievable with every positive and passing minute.

Then comes a time when all that is left is the final step. A leap to take you to the zenith, and a moment that will be reminisced over proudly. And that is when the doubts start creeping in. Not because the climb has not been fruitful. Or because a lot of it is still left. But because, at that very instant, the thought of coming so close but not getting across the line, begins shrouding the belief-system the entire journey was based on, with the steep, deep and doomsday-like plunge feeling more dangerous than ever.

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All of which sounds like…the range of emotions the Punjab Kings went through on Tuesday, against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru – a side with with exactly the same demons to defeat, and the same stratospheric ascension to undertake.

PBKS flounder in a chase they should have dominated

For exactly half of the final, PBKS seemed in control. They contained a powerful RCB batting unit to 190. It was not a meagre total, but it was the lowest-first innings total in Ahmedabad this season and was, in simpler words, probably below-par.

But Punjab, at no stage, felt in charge of the run-chase. This was a chase they should have dominated. Where they should have puffed out their chest, owned the stage and the occasion, and showed that this title, despite years and years of waiting, was only the beginning of a dynasty.

Instead, they let it meander. They seemed so afraid and fearful of what might happen if they played it wrong, that they never even came close to playing it right. Just like a relationship, where there is so much worry about it falling apart in the future, that there is a failure to tend to it in the present.

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It all began with a powerplay where PBKS were too circumspect. Finals do that to teams and batters. And especially uncapped batters. Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya, who have been a breath of fresh air throughout the season, suddenly seemed predictable and tamable.

Chasing 191, there have been worse scores than 52-1 in the powerplay. But on a track where the shorter deliveries bowled by seamers were tough to hit later in the innings (which PBKS would have known, having done it themselves), that approach, of taking their time, seemed a little counter-intuitive.

PBKS did not cover themselves in glory after it either. The introduction of Krunal Pandya triggered an enormous slow-down. Singles were tough to get, let alone boundaries and although there were brief flickers of hope, courtesy Josh Inglis, the rest of the batting unit crumbled around him. The required run-rate kept soaring higher than real estate prices in India, and Inglis, inevitably, paid the price for it.

Punjab were unable to rotate strike too. RCB, for much of their middle overs, were stuck in second gear, with Virat Kohli struggling to increase the tempo and at times, being happy not to do so too. But RCB still finished with just 28 dot balls. PBKS had 43.

Nehal Wadhera, exceptional throughout the campaign, huffed and puffed in particular. And like his teammates, almost always seemed to opt for the wrong scoring options: waiting for pace when the pitch and the RCB bowlers were hell-bent on not offering much.

Romario strikes GOLD! 🤩❤️

Massive moment! Sarpanch Shreyas departs and #RCB would look to get on top from this stage! 💪🏻

Who takes control from here? 👀

LIVE NOW ➡ https://t.co/XmOkxMNq4t#IPLFinals 👉 #RCBvPBKS on Star Sports Network & JioHotstar pic.twitter.com/gI0P3JdDsz

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) June 3, 2025

It did not help that Shreyas Iyer fell cheaply. Or that Marcus Stoinis, so often a supernatural six-hitter, could only last two balls. But the bare fact remains that Punjab’s batting complement, who had a 50 per cent record of scoring 200-plus this season prior to Tuesday, failed when it really, really mattered.

And even though these uncapped Indian players, such as Prabhsimran, Priyansh and Wadhera, will be better for the experience, this defeat, when the harder gig seemed to be to lose, will sting. It will sting for a fair while. Despite the spin of an otherwise productive campaign.

RCB finally conquer the final hurdle after multiple heartbreaks

RCB, however, will not mind it one bit. They could not care less if PBKS crashed and burned, or if the Kings were slayed by a thousand cuts, as it ultimately panned out. They now have the key to the door to dreamland. They have been at its doorstep before – in 2009, in 2011 and more famously (and in more heart-breaking fashion) in 2016, and they have finally barged through.

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And so, wherever you are wearing an RCB jersey, whether it be Indiranagar, Koramangala, Whitefield, or in the vicinity of Brigade Road, Cubbon Park and MG Road, or in any other part of the country, whether you are young, very young, old, very old, or somewhere in the middle, soak it in and soak it in some more.

18 years that had, before Tuesday, only yielded disappointment, hurt, intangibles such as hope and promise, of next season being better, of next year being theirs, has finally thrown up something tangible.

The team of their dreams, the team that has occupied a significant chunk of their heart, their psyche and perhaps even their inner self, has made it. And that will give millions and millions of RCB fans even more belief. That if they could go through all of this, and that if their team could go through all of this, and stand atop the summit teams so regularly crave to be atop of, they could, in their separate walks of life, do so too.

And as the dust settles on an evening that could have been Punjab’s, and should have been theirs, PBKS will go back to their hotel rooms, hoping and longing that when the next opportunity comes around, it will be them tweaking and dramatically altering those previously-trodden paradigms of false dawns, and so-close-yet-so-far conjectures.

But for now, that final step, that last leap and lunge, remains elusive. And that plunge, from a potential crescendo to this nadir of emotions, might have never felt as devastating.