Bengaluru, April 19 Punjab Kings continued their winning run in the IPL 2025, defeating Royal Challengers Bengaluru by five wickets at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday in a rain-curtained encounter. After the match was reduced to 14 overs, Punjab Kings won the toss and elected to bowl. Punjab bowling unit comprising Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen, Yuzvendra Chahal and Harpreet Brar used the conditions to their advantage and took two wickets each.
With Xavier Bartlett also picking up a wicket, PBKS restricted the opposition to 95/9 in 14 overs, despite Tim David scoring a half-century. Nehal Wadhera contributed an unbeaten 33 off 19 balls to help Punjab complete the run chase in 12.1 overs with five wickets to spare.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar explained the reason behind his side electing to bowl and praised Wadhera for his match-winning knock.
"No one had seen the wickets before. When the covers were lifted, our coaches were so experienced, that they knew that the bowlers would get help from the surface. After we won the toss, our seamers and spinners took help from the wicket. Yuzvendra Chahal bowled well, and I also took two wickets. It was not easy to bat on this surface. 95 was a good total on the surface. The way Nehal Wadhera batted was commendable. He stuck to the end and won the game for us," he said.
Meanwhile, Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer also praised the bowling unit, and said that his side adapted well to the conditions after electing to bowl.
"To be honest, we did not know how the wicket was going to play and I personally feel the bowlers they adapted according to it. When I had a chat with Arshdeep, he said, the hard length balls were very difficult to hit on this wicket because I did not see a single six off a fats bowler hit down the ground. That was the chatter going around and they were fantastic in executing it," Iyer said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
Iyer also described Chahal, who registered figures of 2-11 in his three overs on the night, as the 'best bowler in the IPL'. "Personally I had a chat with Chahal. I told him you are a match winner and you need to get us wickets as much as possible. You don't need to be safe in your approach and he has got the capability of bouncing back. That is what we appreciate of him as a leggie. Probably he is the best bowler in the IPL so far," he added.
Meanwhile, Brar also praised Wadhera for his tremendous batting performance and explained how the 24-year-old has grown up over the years. "Nehal is a very good player. He has been playing IPL for the past 2-3 years. He has been a key player for Punjab in the domestic circuit. He played really well in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy knockout games. He has been a really good player from the start. He also played well for India U-19 team. When he is scoring runs here, so as a senior, it makes us really proud."
The 29-year-old Brar further insisted that Nehal made the chase easier for Punjab on a tricky batting surface. "As per the wicket, this is no scoring match. The level of bowlers in IPL, it was a difficult game. The way Nehal batted and scored boundaries made the game easy for us," he signed off.
Punjab Kings will next play the reverse fixture against RCB at the New PCA Stadium, New Chandigarh on Sunday.
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