Royal Challengers Bengaluru is through to the first qualifier in IPL 2025. Lucknow Super Giants had set a target of 228 runs which was led by Rishabh Pant’s fantastic century . But, RCB achieved their target only by losing 4 wickets. RCB displayed a pure team effort and sailed through with Virat Kohli (54), Mayank Agarwal (41) and Jitesh Sharma (85) being the top scorers for the team. The stand-in skipper Jitesh Sharma came in and conquered, he started his innings when RCB was losing wickets but handling the situation under pressure, he took the match deep and won it.
After the match, Jitesh Sharma mentioned about the win and said that RCB is a team of match-winners and also applauded his seniors for their constant guidance.
“I will not be able to express my thoughts! I can’t believe I played that knock. When Virat bhai was out, I was just thinking of taking it deep. As my mentor and guru Dinesh [Karthik] anna says, just take it deep. I was getting cramps because all the load was on me! I have Virat bhai, Krunal bhai and Bhuvi bhai with me. I feel excited that I’m playing with them. “
“We want to enjoy the moment. But we’ll try to recover well. We’ll look to carry the momentum into the next match. Credit goes to Rajat. I had the responsibility of maintaining his record. Hazlewood will perhaps play in the knockout. We have a strong belief system. We have match winners. Look at our playing XI, and we have match winners.”
