Krunal Pandya was the star for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their IPL 2025 match on Monday at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. With Mumbai Indians (MI) needing 19 runs to win in the final over while chasing 222, Krunal was tasked with leading RCB to victory. He stepped up, giving away just six runs and taking three crucial wickets.
On the first ball of the over, he removed Mitchell Santner, who was capable of hitting the winning runs. However, it was Krunal’s second wicket in the over that stole the spotlight. Bowling from around the wicket, Krunal surprised Deepak Chahar with a short delivery. Chahar attempted to pull the ball and nearly hit it for a boundary.
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Phil Salt positioned himself under the ball, but realising it might go over the boundary, he threw it back into play. Tim David was quick to take the rebound, completing the catch. Without the remarkable efforts of Salt and David, Krunal wouldn’t have been able to dismiss Chahar.
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After dismissing Santner and Chahar, Krunal conceded a boundary to Naman Dhir in the fourth ball of the over. But Krunal dismissed him in the penultimate ball, after which he finished off with a dot ball. Krunal also racked up his best bowling figures of 4-0-45-4 in the IPL. After the match, Krunal said that the experience of playing for MI at the Wankhede helped him in the death overs.
Also Read: IPL 2025: RCB breach MI Wankhede fortress after 10 years after last-over thriller
“When I came onto bowl, Santner was batting and leg side was shorter and the amount of games I played here in the last 10 years, at some point the experience had to come in. As a bowler, sometimes you want to commit and it is important to commit 100 percent and it helps in execution,” Krunal said.
With the win, RCB are at third in the table with six points and a net run rate of +1.015 thanks to wins in three out of four matches.
