Match No. 54 saw Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) perform a double over Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium, New Raipur. RCB won the low-scoring thriller by 2 wickets, defeating the five-time champions to top the table, becoming the second team to be eliminated.
Krunal Pandya, who played a match-winning inning of 73 runs in the game, almost cried while talking about his former teammate Kieron Pollard and his younger brother Hardik Pandya. Earlier, Krunal played for Mumbai and won four IPL trophies. He won three titles (2017, 2019, 2020) with Mumbai Indians and one with Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2025.
Krunal Pandya hero for RCB
Even today, Krunal Pandya faced defeat and victory against his former franchise. He was excellent in the match, but due to cramps in the latter stages of the game, he gave everything he had to make it a close run margin. After the game, Krunal gave Pollard a beautiful hug.
When asked about it after the match, he was emotional and his voice was trembling while talking about his relationship with Pollard and Hardik. Along with this, he also talked about his cramps and how he likes to bat in difficult conditions.
Polly (Pollard) is my elder brother – Krunal Pandya
Pandya said, “Polly (Pollard) is my elder brother. I had the best six years in MI. Pandya bhai and Pollard, we were the engine room. He is a fantastic human being. Great player in this format. Won so many trophies and so many games. As Polly says, you can’t disappoint a good man.”
“I was having a lot of cramps. It started from the calf, went to the buttocks and down to my back. It was something new for me. What matters are two points. I like tough situations because I am always prepared. When things get tough I look forward to doing that. The shot Bhuvi played was the shot of the match. It was a wicket where you had to play cricketing shots.”
“You’ve got to come in good shape and you’ve got to apply and grind. It’s fine (body), a lot of cramping. Now I think I’ll take a lot of fluids and food. I thought I could take on the spinner because I was batting well so I thought let me play all six balls.”
RCB’s thrilling win in Raipur
Talking about the match, after being invited to bat first, Mumbai were in deep trouble but then Tilak Verma and Naman Dheer made a partnership of 82 runs and the latter came back to score 47 runs in the game. Tilak scored 57 runs in 42 balls as MI scored 165/8 in 20 overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar took four wickets.
While chasing the target, RCB was also in trouble at 39/3 and then Krunal and Jacob Bathel formed a partnership. But wickets kept falling later as the former stuck to one end, tried to bring the match as close as possible and in the end, RCB won it on the last ball.
Also read: “Tough pill to swallow”: Suryakumar Yadav shares emotional reaction after Mumbai Indians’ playoff hopes dashed
