RR bottle PBKS, 14 -year -old IPL playoffs entering a touching distance to break another chase Jinx

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RR bottle PBKS, 14 -year -old IPL playoffs entering a touching distance to break another chase Jinx

RR, IPL chasing in 2025, lost 8 of 9 matches. As for the PBKs, they last reached playoffs in 2014.

Rajasthan Royals (RR) have bottled another run chase in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. They have won just 1 match while chasing, and they have been put in to bat second 9 times. But often it hasn’t been that they have been outperformed. In several chases, RR were on top but then managed to lose the game.

RR’s chasing woes

This includes failing to chase 9 runs in the final over against Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants in back-to-back matches. They lost the first match in the Super Over and the second one by 2 runs. In their last match, they lost by 1 run to the Kolkata Knight Riders. Today, it’s the Punjab Kings (PBKS) against whom they bottled yet another chase.

After Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal’s rollicking start, RR needed just 115 runs in 12 overs with 9 wickets in hand. It should have been a walk in the park given how well the ball was coming on to the bat. Well, that didn’t happen. In the next 7 overs, RR scored just 49 runs and lost 3 wickets.

And just like all of the other matches, all three of RR’s finishers (Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer and Shubham Dubey) failed to finish the match. Jurel scored a good half-century, but Hetmyer and Dubey failed to show up again. RR’s already disappointing season gets even worse.

PBKS on the verge of qualifying for IPL 2025 Playoffs

But it was delightful for PBKS. They are now on the cusp of reaching their first IPL playoffs since 2014. They were pretty much there; they just need 1 more point to seal a spot. And given how well they are playing, it shouldn’t be an issue. Against RR, the Shreyas Iyer-led side was 34/3 in 3.1 overs. But they still posted 219 on board.

Despite not having the services of Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis, they did exceedingly well with the bat. And despite Marco Jansen and Arshdeep Singh going for 101 runs in 7 overs, they won by 10 runs. This just shows that PBKS can win, even without being close to their best, and that’s what great teams do.