Royal Challengers Bengaluru all-rounder Krunal Pandya revealed he wanted to be brave in IPL 2025 final against Punjab Kings at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Tuesday. Pandya, who is known to bowl quick through the air, said he wanted to vary his pace as the pitch had assistance.
The left-arm orthodox spinner returned with impressive figures of 2-17 in his quota of four overs and played a key role in restricting the opposition to 184 in the run-chase of 191. Pandya saw Prabhsimran Singh advance down the track and thus used his guile to slow it down and bowled a bit shorter. The PBKS opener could not get to the pitch of the ball and was caught by Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Subsequently, Pandya got the big wicket of Josh Inglis, who was taking the game away from RCB as the Australian had scored 39 runs off 23 balls.
Thus, Pandya was awarded the Player of the Match for his superb spell of bowling.
Pandya said in the post-match presentation, “When we batted in the first innings, I was sitting outside and chatting with batters, I realised the slower you bowl the better. But in this format as a bowler you need guts to do that because the margin of error is small. I just backed myself and thought that if I’m able to vary my pace and keep it more on the slower side, I’ll create chances rather than just coming and firing it in. What has been my biggest strength is learning what the situation requires. I’ve always backed my gut and instinct. Today also I realised if I have to take a couple of wickets, I have to be brave.”
The 34-year-old all-rounder said the track would have helped the batters if he had bowled quick through the air.
Pandya concluded, “If you would’ve bowled quick on that surface, it would’ve been a good batting wicket. But if you varied your pace, there was some help. In the second innings it got better as well compared to the first innings. When I joined RCB I said that I loved winning trophies. After 3 and a half months, glad I was able to fulfil what I said on Day 1.”
RCB will celebrate their win in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
