IPL 2025, RCB vs PBKS Live Score: Shreyas Iyer wins delayed toss, Punjab Kings bowl first in 14-overs-a-side match

RCB vs PBKS IPL Live Score 2025, Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Punjab Kings: Shreyas Iyer has won the toss, which was delayed to 9.30pm IST, and Punjab Kings are bowling first against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Rain forced the match to be delayed for more than two hours. It has led to the game being reduced to a 14-overs-a-side affair. ...Read More

It is the 18th anniversary of the first-ever IPL match. There have been unseasonal showers the past few days in the city of Bengaluru and it is no different today. The ground was all covered up and it was drizzling steadily in the minutes leading up to, and in the hours after, the originally scheduled time for toss.

Two games in three days against each other at the highest end of the table, as Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings prepare to do battle to decide their fate in the rest of this tournament. It's a crucial pair of ties for two teams on identical records at this point of the season, sitting on 8 points and with ambitions of climbing higher into the playoff zone — and crucially, ensuring those chasing don't have the opportunity to catch up.

RCB and PBKS have been neck and neck throughout IPL 2025, also having an identical form guides heading into this match. Despite being so similar in their numbers so far this season, the kinds of cricket teams these two units are are very, very different. Punjab are all about rock-and-roll batting, plenty of flair and power present in their team from the openers through to the lower middle order. They need to be, to make up for a bowling unit that has blown hot and cold — but their latest match saw them snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, defending an IPL record total of 111 runs against defending champions KKR. This, their very next match after failing to defend 245. Truly an enigma of a team to try and figure out.

With Yuzvendra Chahal and Marco Jansen finding form to support the always-reliable Arshdeep Singh, the prospect of facing Punjab becomes trickier for a Bengaluru team who are a lot more balanced and don’t have as many obvious weaknesses to try and target. RCB have had a strange season thus far: they have four wins while travelling on the road, but in the two matches they have played at home, they have managed to lose on both occasions. With the match being played at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium this evening, it will be a trend RCB will be anxious to reverse.

The bowling looks settled, the batting is gradually clicking into gear on all fronts, and RCB have impressed many with the overall balance their experienced team possesses. With Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar with the ball maintaining early control, their ability to keep the dangerous opening duo of Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh will be all-important in the context of this match. A side-plot will be the return of a struggling Glenn Maxwell to Bengaluru, a ground where he had much success: with 41 runs in 5 innings at an average of 8.20, it has been a horrific start for the Big Show.

On the other hand, Phil Salt will be expected to provide another fast start, but it could come down to captain Rajat Patidar’s hitting ability against spin to keep the scoreboard moving against a confident Chahal and economical Maxwell. Virat Kohli will be expected to stitch it all together, but scoring at a quick rate will be crucial against a Punjab team that has all the firepower and attacking intent an IPL team could wish for.

Both these teams will know how important it is to get a result on the board in this match: their next game is less than 48 hours after this one. The teams will play this game in Bengaluru in the south, before having only one day to fly all the way north to Chandigarh, where they will face off in the day game on Sunday. With such a quick turnaround, the teams will know producing a result today evening is paramount: which team can pull it together and execute best in a match that is certain to be full of moments of terrific cricket?

Click here to read article