IPL 2025 Pulse - Week #5

April 19

RCB's home jinx continues

On a rain-marred night in Bengaluru, RCB once again suffered a loss at home this season, making it three in three for them at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. With the game reduced to 14-overs-a-side, the hosts' lost wickets in clumps on a spicy pitch that had enough it in for the quicks. It took a well-paced fifty from Tim David to help them avoid embarrassment but the total of 95 always seemed about 20-25 runs short. Josh Hazlewood then tried his best but Nehal Wadhera led the chase for PBKS who registered their fifth win of the season.

Tim David's marvellous solo act

When he walked to the middle, RCB were 33/5, the lowest score at which five had wickets fallen for any side this season. David got going instantly, hammering his first ball for four but saw wickets fall in clusters around him. It became 47/7 soon and then 63/9 with overs still left. The Australian hung in and then used his power game to great effect, hammering 11 off the penultimate over and 21 off the 14th over to give some respite for RCB. If only one more batter from the home side had shown similar character.

A dip in Livingstone's pace-hitting game

Since his IPL debut, nobody has a better strike-rate against pace than Liam Livingstone. The Englishman's power game has been immense and while consistency hasn't been optimal, he has always scored quickly. However, in IPL 2025, teams have found a way to keep him in check, especially in Bengaluru.

Another day, another RCB failure in decoding their home surface

After their loss to DC, batting coach Dinesh Karthik did admit that his side were surprised by the nature of pitches at home. He isn't the first person this season to talk about home advantage or lack of it. The M Chinnaswamy Stadium hasn't had those flat true pitches of yesteryear for a while now and this year, things have been tougher. RCB's batters, packed with free-flowing strokemakers,haven't been able to adapt to the challenges at home. With four of their last six games being in Bengaluru, RCB need to find a method to this madness sooner than later.

Double-header Super Saturday

It's weekend time and that means two games in the offing. The first clash is in Ahmedabad where Gujarat Titans will host Delhi Capitals, followed by the evening clash in Jaipur where Rajasthan Royals shall take on Lucknow Super Giants. Have a look at the match previews to get a hang of what to expect in these games.

April 18

What pitch was that?

Travis Head, Ishan Kishan and Nitish Reddy scoring under a run-a-ball at Wankhede? Ripley's! An unusually sticky pitch threw SRH off their game and handed MI a four-wicket win. Dale Steyn's "300-run" prediction did come true though... if you added both teams' totals. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Slow pitch for SRH: a tactic?

After pulling off the second highest run-chase in IPL, all SRH wanted was a good deck to bat. And what they got from MI was pitch #6 at Wankhede, where MI bowled KKR for 116 earlier in the season. It was the same pitch were KKR successfully defended 169 against the home team last season - the only sub-200 target that was defended at Wankhede since 2023. Make of that what you will *cough, cough*.

So what did MI do well (besides picking that pitch)?

First, they grabbed the better bowling conditions like pros. SRH quicks actually bowled more slower balls, but MI's bowlers got way more out of the tacky surface. And more importantly, they didn't turn into a one-trick pony like poor Sandeep Sharma the night before. Boult, Bumrah and Hardik kept mixing it up, keeping batters as confused as Google Maps in Bangalore traffic.

Yes, it was an anti-climax

After all that buildup, what we got were four hours of laborious run-making. That the pitch was sticky and that MI won a good toss has been established; but so thrown off were SRH batters by what was on offer that they scored just 20 runs off the first 15 full tosses they faced! It was that sort of a night.

Will Jacks goes from oops to wow

Figures of 2-14 and then 36 off 26 balls: an all-round performance for which he won Player of the Match too. And his wickets included Head and Ishan. Not a bad day out there, especially after you have dropped Abhishek Sharma first ball of the match.

Did you know?

SRH remain winless on the road this season, while MI notched up their 29th win while chasing at Wankhede - the most by any team at a single venue in the IPL.

What's on today?

"Aar Cee Bee" chants along with some unending jam on the Cubbon Park road. But that aside, there's also RCB vs PBKS at the Chinnaswamy. There's some rain around, which means captains will want to bowl first, which they prefer doing anyway at this venue. Things to watch out for: Yuzvendra Chahal's homecoming after that historic spell the other night in Mullanpur, and how Devdutt Padikkal's quiet corner turn.