PBKS vs RCB: Top two teams with similar past and present look to outsmart each other in Qualifier 1

Time of India

a day ago

The IPL 2025 Playoffs begin tonight with Punjab Kings facing Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Both teams aim for a direct spot in the final. PBKS and RCB had similar league stage performances. Key players return from injury, but some will miss out. Shreyas Iyer will look to perform against Virat Kohli and RCB's bowlers.
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IYER VS KOHLI
Tonight, the IPL 2025 enters the final stretch: the Playoffs, which consist of four games played between the top four teams to decide this year's champions. And, there are no two better teams this season than Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to kick-off the round with. Qualifier 1 , a reward for consistency throughout the season, gives PBKS and RCB an additional attempt at reaching the final — the losers will get to play another match against the winners of the eliminator between Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians — but both would want to do it at the first attempt and earn themselves an extra day of rest for tired limbs and minds.Based on their performances this season, it's difficult to separate the two. They both won nine times and lost only four in 14 league-round matches, with one game each washed out. When they faced each other, PBKS won in Bengaluru and RCB avenged the loss two days later in Mullanpur.It's not just their present that's so strikingly similar, they also share a past that's full of disappointment, season after season. Both PBKS and RCB are yet to lift the IPL trophy despite being a part of the tournament since its inception in 2008. (Delhi Capitals are the only other team on this dubious list.)In fact, PBKS are playing in the Playoffs for the first time since 2014, when they topped the points table like this year before losing to Kolkata Knight Riders in the final. RCB, on the other hand, have regularly featured in the Playoffs in the last few years without making it to the final. Their last final appearance was in 2016, when they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad.At the core of both teams' success has been the pre-season changes. PBKS brought in a new coaching team led by Ricky Ponting and appointed a new captain in Shreyas Iyer . While RCB retained Andy Flower as coach, they handed over the reins of the team to Rajat Patidar. And the changes seem to have paid off for both sides.Going into tonight's game, both the teams are set to welcome their key bowlers. RCB's Josh Hazlewood , their best bowler with 18 wickets in 10 games, is back after recovering from a shoulder injury. For PBKS, Yuzvendra Chahal , who missed a couple of matches with a wrist injury, is expected to be fit for the Qualifier 1.But they will also miss crucial players. While Punjab's allrounder Marco Jansen has returned to South Africa to join the Test squad for the World Test Championship final, Bengaluru's lower-order marauder Tim David is unlikely to recover from his hamstring injury that he picked against SRH in time to be available for this important game.'Every team's missing players,' Punjab head coach Ricky Ponting said. 'We'd like to think we've got good depth, and be able to cover for Marco, despite it being a big miss.'After RCB beat PBKS in their return fixture on April 20, Virat Kohli looked towards Iyer and celebrated animatedly. Kohli was the Player of the Match in that game for his 73 not out off 54. Iyer has just 25 runs from four matches in Mullanpur this season. Also, the PBKS captain doesn't have a great record against three main RCB bowlers — Hazlewood (3 dismissals, 9 runs), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3 dismissals, 45 runs) and Krunal Pandya (1 dismissal, 85 strike rate). But he has been in great touch this season, with 514 runs at a strike rate of 171.90.Iyer is not known to show too much emotions on the field, but he would want to set the record straight. Brace yourself for a blockbuster.