Royal Challengers Bengaluru edged out Chennai Super Kings in a heart-pulsating thriller in Match No. 52 of IPL 2025 and moved to the top of the points table.
RCB lost a fifth toss in five matches at home in this IPL season and for the fifth match were put in. Jacob Bethell (55 off 33) and Virat Kohli (62 off 33) started RCB off perfectly, but their middle order couldn’t carry on. Matheesha Pathirana (3 for 36) wrecked the middle order and then started the Romario Shepherd show. Shepherd (53* off 14) blasted boundaries in the last two overs to take RCB to a total that looked safe at half time.
RCB started strongly in the powerplay with the ball as well, but Ayush Mhatre (94 off 48) showed all his skills on display. Mhatre hit five fours and a six off a Bhuvneshwar Kumar over. Ravindra Jadeja (77* off 45) also kept taking the game away from RCB. Lungi Ngidi, playing his first IPL match in over four years, smashed the door open for RCB. Ngidi (3 for 20) got Mhatre and Dewald Brevis off successive balls and RCB had an in. Brevis’ dismissal ultimately turned controversial.
After a lot of back and forth between the sides, Yash Dayal was tasked with defending 15 runs off the last over. The first three balls saw two runs and the wicket of MS Dhoni. With 13 runs required from three balls, Shivam Dube sent a beamer for six. The beamer wasn’t originally called either. With six runs required from three balls, Dayal only conceded singles as RCB were home by 2 runs.
Here are the most important numbers from the match
1 – Virat Kohli’s 153 sixes at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru are the most by a player at any stadium in all T20s. The previous record was Chris Gayle’s 149 at the same ground.
1 – Virat Kohli is the first batsman to put up 8,500 runs in the IPL. Rohit Sharma is a distant second with 6,921.
1 – Virat Kohli now has the joint most fifties in the IPL. His 62 are as many as David Warner had gotten.
1 – 2025 is now the eighth IPL season where Virat Kohli has aggregated 500 runs or more. These are the most such seasons by a player with David Warner’s seven being in second place.
1 – Virat Kohli’s 1,146 runs against CSK in the IPL are the most by a player against a single franchise in the marquee league. In close quarters are – David Warner with 1,134 against PBKS, Kohli with 1,130 against DC and Kohli with 1,104 against PBKS.
1 – Khaleel Ahmed’s economy rate of 21.67 is the worst in a single IPL innings of minimum three overs. Each of the top three entries on this list are from IPL 2025. The next worst is Jofra Archer with 19 having conceded 76 runs in his four overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad earlier in the season.
1 – Despite the fact that he bowled just three overs in this match, Khaleel Ahamed’s 65 are the most runs conceded by a CSK bowler in an IPL match. The previous record belonged to Lungi Ngidi who conceded 62 in his four overs against MI in 2021. That game was Ngidi’s last in the IPL before this one.
2 – Romario Shepherd’s 14-ball fifty is the joint second fastest in IPL history. Yashasvi Jaiswal got a fifty in 13 balls against KKR in 2023 while KL Rahul against Delhi Capitals in 2018 and Pat Cummins against MI in 2022 matches the figure of 14.
1 – Shepherd’s 14-ball fifty was the fastest ever for RCB in the IPL. Before Shepherd, the record was held by Chris Gayle who got to fifty in 17 balls during his iconic 175* against Pune Warriors in 2013.
3 – Khaleel Ahmed’s 33-run 19th over to Shepherd is the joint-third most expesnive over in IPL history. The top spot is shared by two overs that went for 37 runs each – by Prasanth Parameswaran against RCB in 2011 and Harshal Patel against CSK in 2022. Daniel Sams bowled a 35-run over against MI in 2022, while Ravi Bopara against KKR in 2010 and Parwinder Awan against CSK in 2014 also bowled 33-run overs.
3 – Shepherd’s strike rate of 378.57 in thsi innings is the third highest in a single IPL innings for a minimum of 10 balls faced. Shepherd also has the top spot in this list after making 39 runs in 10 balls at a strike rate of 390 against Delhi Capitals last year. Abhishek Sharma is in second place having scored 46 runs in 12 balls at a strike rate of 383.33 also against the Capitals in 2024.
4 – This match was the fourth instance where three different batters made fifties for RCB in an IPL match. The only other teams with even two such instances are SRH and CSK.
3 – Ayush Mhatre became the second youngest player to score an IPL fifty at 17 years and 291 days old. The top two slost are taken by Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who was 14 years and 32 days old during his carnage-filled hundred earlier this year, and Riyan Parag who wass 17 years and 175 days old while scoring a fifty against CSK in 2019.
1 – CSK aren’t known for investing in very young players, and it shows. Mhatre became the first teenager to score an IPL fifty for CSK. The previous youngest player to score an IPL fifty for CSK was Suresh Raina who was well over 21 years old in 2008.
3 – MS Dhoni became the third player to hit 50 sixes against a single franchise in the IPL. Dhoni breached the mark against RCB while Chris Gayle did it against both Punjab Kings and KKR. Rohit Sharma also has fifty sixes against Delhi Capitals in the IPL.
1 – For the first time ever, RCB have completed a season double over CSK by beating them in both league stage matches in the season.
2 – RCB’s win margin of 2 runs is their joint-second lowest in terms of runs in the IPL. RCB registered one-run wins over Punjab Kings in 2016, CSK in 2019 and Delhi Capitals in 2021. RCB’s other two-run win came against MI in 2013.
