IPL 2025 | David’s fifty props up RCB

Bengaluru: On the eighteenth anniversary of India’s favourite pastime, aka the Indian Premier League, Bengaluru’s indefatigable crowd gathered at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Friday to get a taste of Royal Challengers Bengaluru.  

At the same venue on the same day in 2008, they witnessed an era-defining 158 not out from Kolkata Knight Riders’ Brendon McCullum. 

RCB lost that game by 140 runs. KKR scored 222 for 3. RCB were bowled out for 82, a score which was their lowest.

A lot has changed between 2008 and 2025, but RCB’s ability to go from epic to inept from one game to the next seems to be alive still. 

Sure, they’re third on the table this season thanks to a good run away from home, but there’s something about this City they’re allergic to. And, it isn’t pollen or pollution. 

Rajat Patidar is yet to win a toss here in three games, meaning the Kings would naturally choose to bowl first and capitalise on the dew later in the evening.

But, those dynamics forced a change in strategy because the game was delayed by over two hours due to the kind of powdery rain, which - annoyingly - allows for most outdoor sports to go on unabated, save for cricket. 

RCB, for reasons they will automatically come up with inane excuses for, chose to leave out Devdutt Padikkal and include leg-spinner Suyash Sharma. It would’ve made sense had they been bowling first, but this move, and the injection of Manoj Bhandage as the Impact Substitute, defied logic. 

Then again, this is RCB, so the faithful have come to accept their failings with a pinch of salt. 

In this excruciating batting display, RCB put up a Tim David-powered 95 for 9 in 14 overs.

For this, the crowd, a healthy heap too, didn’t mind the steady drizzle which accompanied them or the traffic which hindered them as they squeezed their way past overzealous cops and pushed their way in to settle into their seats to wait. 

Had it been any other ground in the country, the possibility of play would have been but a distant thought and their voices would’ve sounded more desperate than desirable. But the Sub-Air system at this venue is capable of drying out a flood in minutes, so the ticket-holders got louder with time. 

Their patience was eventually rewarded at 8:59 pm when the covers came off. At this point, it was announced that the toss was going to happen at 9:30 pm and a 14-overs-a-side match would start at 9:45 pm. 

The crowd was set. The players were set. But the rain gods in Bengaluru wanted to have a little fun and sent in a minute-long spell to bring out the covers again. Luckily, it was but a divine prank, and the game eventually got underway at 9:47 pm.

Not long after, the crowd wished the game hadn’t gotten underway at all. They were reduced to a sparing applause or two as RCB’s batters came up with an amateur display, a fact compounded by their composition. 

In the end, though, David’s long handle came in handy en route to his unconquered 26-ball 50, but that seems hardly enough to down the Goliath at this moment. 

Following a top-order collapse Tim David rescued RCB with an unbeaten 50 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Friday. REUTERS

Cut-off box - SCOREBOARD
ROYAL CHALLENGERS BENGALURU: Phil Salt c Inglis b Arshdeep 4 (4b 1x4) Virat Kohli c Jansen b Arshdeep 1 (3b) Rajat Patidar c Bartlett b Chahal 23 (18b 1x4 1x6) Liam Livingstone c Arya b Barlett 4 (6b 1x4) Jitesh Sharma c Wadhera b Chahal 2 (7b) Krunal Pandya c&b Jansen 1 (2b) Tim David (not out) 50 (26b 5x4 3x6) Manoj Bhaandage 1 (4b) Bhuvneshwar Kumar c Bartlett b Brar 8 (13b 1x4) Yash Dayal lbw Brar 0 (1b) Josh Hazlewood (not out) 0 (1b). Extras (NB-1) 1. TOTAL (for 9 wkts 14 overs) 95. 
Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Salt) 2-21 (Kohli) 3-26 (Livingstone) 4-32 (Jitesh) 5-33 (Krunal) 6-41 (Patidar) 7-42 (Bhandage) 8-63 (Bhuvneshwar) 9-63 (Dayal) 
Bowling: Arshdeep Singh 3-0-23-2 Xavier Bartlett 3-0-26-1 Marco Jansen 3-0-10-2 Yuzvendra Chahal 3-0-11-2 Harpreet Brar 2-0-25-2 (nb-1).