A rousing ten-wicket defeat of hosts Delhi Capitals has put IPL 2025 table-toppers Gujarat Titans into the playoffs and simultaneously pushed Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings into the final four round as well, thus leaving one spot up for grabs.
With 13 points from 12 games, DC remain in contention for that final spot, alongside fourth-placed Mumbai Indians (14 points) and seventh-ranked Lucknow Super Giants (10 points).
Set a target of 200 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday evening, GT romped to 205/0 in 19 overs with their openers B Sai Sudarshan (108* off 61 balls) and Shubman Gill (92* off 53) continuing to break batting records in the IPL. No other opening act in any T20 league has put on as many runs in one edition, and the fact that GT hardly broke a sweat in their chase indicates how dominant a batting order this is.
The stand between Sudarshan and Gill is now the third-highest opening partnership in the IPL. The fluency with which the two GT openers went about their business shoved firmly into the background a fifth T20 century – all in the IPL – from KL Rahul, who scored an unbeaten 112 off 65 deliveries after Gill put DC into bat.
The result ensured that RCB, in second place, and third-ranked PBKS made it to the playoffs too.
Earlier on Sunday, PBKS beat Rajasthan Royals by 10 runs to secure their place in the top four as the IPL resumed following a washout in Bengaluru the night before. Driven to 219/7 in 20 overs after fifties to Nehal Wadhera (70 off 37) and Shashank Singh (59 off 30), the visiting team derailed what seemed an interesting chase to hand the already eliminated Royals their tenth loss.
After opting to bat, PBKS were in a jam at 34/3 before their skipper Shreyas Iyer made 30 off 25 and Wadhera injected the desired impetus by striking five sixes. The pair added 67 off 44 balls, with Wadhera needing just 25 balls to get to his fifty, after which he put on 58 off 33 balls with Shashank. Once Wadhera was out in the 16th over, Shashank found a capable partner in Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai (21* off nine) and the two crashed 60 runs off the last four overs.
Chasing 220, RR took 22 runs off the opening over and their openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi smashed 76 off 29 balls. But once wickets started to fall, the chase gave way. Omarzai and Marco Jansen shared four wickets to seal a narrow win to give PBKS vital points.
