IPL Pulse: The almost-ruined Saturday

Good morning,

There are regular Saturday mornings, and then there are Saturday mornings when RCB have won at home and climbed to second on the table. This is firmly the latter. Here's your Cricketlineguruji Pulse, your two-minute scan of the IPLverse.

Last night in five lines

RCB won their last home game in Bengaluru convincingly by 5 wickets

Shubman Gill and Sudharsan added 128 for the opening stand

Sai Sudharsan's 57-ball hundred took GT to 205/3 but it wasn't enough on what Virat Kohli called the best batting surface of the season in Bengaluru

GT's batting in the death overs hurt them as only 3 fours and 3 sixes were hit in the last five overs

Devdutt Padikkal and Kohli hit fifties as the duo added 115 off only 59 balls for the second wicket in a facile chase, with Kohli winning PoTM

Oh, that happened

For the second time this season, Rasikh Dar cramped up and threw RCB's death plans off script. At Wankhede against MI, Romario Shepherd had to complete his over, and the time spent off the field also ruled Rasikh out of bowling the last. Yesterday brought a near-identical twist. With RCB nailing their yorkers and Rasikh lined up to bowl the 20th before hobbling away, Krunal Pandya had to take over instead. Much like Shepherd in Mumbai, he leaked runs in an over that stood out precisely because everything before it had largely been so clinical.

Pulse awards

The it's-not-a-fortress award changes hands from Chinnaswamy to Wankhede, where home advantage currently appears to be available only in theory.

The pick-your-bowler-carefully award goes to Virat Kohli, who reserved all four of his sixes exclusively for GT's overseas attack.

The seen-this-ground-before award goes to Devdutt Padikkal for launching the very first ball he faced into the stands and reminding everyone that this is very much his kind of workplace.

The thanks-for-not-ruining-Saturday-night award goes to Washington Sundar for grassing Kohli first ball and sparing Chinnaswamy an evening of collective grief.

Talking point

Remember RCB bleeding runs at the death? That's a distant memory now. They have made the final five overs a strength this season, with a league-best 17 wickets in that phase. RCB have also bowled the most yorkers in the IPL - 25 - while conceding exactly a run a ball off them, with Bhuvneshwar going at 8 and Hazlewood at 9.25 at the death. The squeeze showed again against GT, who crashed from 170 for 2 after 16 overs to just 205, scoring only 17 runs with no boundaries across overs 17 to 19.

Who's saying what

Kohli hailed Padikkal for "playing a blinder from ball one" for the second time this season, and Padikkal returned the compliment by saying his senior partner's "passion and commitment" rub off on him.

Gill felt GT's boundary-less passage through overs 16 to 19 proved "crucial for us" in the wrong way, and also joked that Sai Sudharsan, who faced 29 of the 36 PowerPlay balls, should "give me a little bit more strike" next time.

Stat Snack

Since 2025, Padikkal has been in the middle for 558 balls, including those as non-striker; Kohli has been at the other end for 79% of those deliveries!

What's the latest gossip?

With RCB set to play marquee matches against MI and KKR in Raipur instead of Bengaluru, flight fares have surged and birdies inform there is loose talk of extending the peripheral ring road till central India. The silver lining: even with the scenic and cricket-y diversion, the trip home from work may not take any longer.

Tonight's watchlist

DC host PBKS in Delhi before RR take on SRH later in Jaipur's first match of the season.

Reckless prediction for tonight's match

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Abhishek Sharma will turn RR vs SRH into an unofficial shootout for opening spots on India's tour of Ireland.