3 Reasons RR Lost To PBKS IPL 2025: The Punjab Kings defeated the Rajasthan Royals by 10 runs after scoring 219 runs in Match 59 of the Indian Premier League 2025. The match was played on Sunday, May 18, at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Kolkata.
Rajasthan Royals are already out of the race for the playoffs. They had a terrible start to the season, suffering significant losses to SRH and KKR in their first two games. Then came successive wins for the only time in the season, as RR won against CSK and PBKS. This was followed by a five-match losing streak, which included defeats against GT, LSG, DC, LSG, and RCB again. A massive win over GT was followed by losses to MI, KKR, and now PBKS. After tonight’s loss, the Royals have three wins, 10 losses, six points, and a poor net run rate in 13 games, putting them ninth on the points table.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Kings are having their best season in a decade. So far, they have won eight matches this season, winning against GT, LSG, CSK, KKR, RCB, CSK again, LSG again, and now RR. They have also lost just three games, having been defeated by RR, SRH, and RCB. Meanwhile, Punjab’s second game against KKR this season was washed away. With eight wins, one washout, 17 points, and a positive net run rate in 12 games, the Kings are second in the points table.
Today, we will look back at three reasons why RR, playing this match at home, lost this game.
3 Reasons RR Lost To PBKS IPL 2025
3) Punjab’s Middle Order Strikes
Unlike most matches this season, the uncapped Punjab Kings opening duo did not give their side a good start. The pair of Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya are both having a solid IPL 2025. In most matches, at least one of the two scores some decent runs. However, that was not the case tonight, as it was the middle order that had to get the job done.
Prabhsimran, who is the highest run scorer for the Kings this season, scored 21 off 10. Meanwhile, Arya scored just nine off seven. Mitchell Owen, who came into the squad as a replacement for Glenn Maxwell, was out for a duck on his IPL debut. It then fell upon the middle order to score runs on this flat-looking track.
The star of the show tonight was Nehal Wadhera at No. 4. He came in to bat after Owen’s dismissal in the third over and started attacking from the word go. He, along with captain Shreyas Iyer, kept wickets from falling for about seven more overs. And while Iyer scored only 30 in 25, Wadhera kept the flow of runs going.
The young batter was then joined by Shashank Singh. The two batted quickly and for long. By the time Nehal was dismissed for 70 off 37 in the 16th over, the team score was 159/5. Shashank, along with Azmatullah Omarzai, then gave Punjab a solid finish, taking the team to 219 runs, which, at the end of the day, was enough to win.
Check Out: 3 Reasons RR Lost To PBKS IPL 2025
2) Nightmare Bowling Day For RR
The Rajasthan Royals did not have a good day with bowling at their home ground, which has been a repeating story this season. Once again, the Royals conceded over 200 runs while bowling first and were not able to chase it.
RR used six bowlers tonight. Five of these, being Tushar Deshpande, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Wanindu Hasaranga, Akash Madhwal, and the debuting Kwena Maphaka, were frontline bowlers and were expected to bowl four overs each. But when some of them started going for a lot of runs, Riyan Parag had to step in and bowl three. And surprisingly, Parag was the team’s most economical bowler, conceding 26 runs in three at an economy of 8.67 and even dismissing Shreyas Iyer.
On the other hand, none of the other bowlers were economical; Farooqi’s three-over spell had the figures of 0/39 at an economy of 13, Deshpande conceded 37 in four at 9.25 rpo and took two wickets, Maphaka did dismiss Mitchell Owen but gave away 32 in three at an economy of 10.67, Hasaranga conceded 33 in three at 11 rpo and did not take a wicket, and Madhwal finished his four-over spell with the figures of 48/1 at 12 runs per over.
All this was because of Rajasthan’s inability to stop the flow of runs in the middle overs and to concede a lot in the death overs. After a decent start to their bowling inning, the Royals just could not take wickets regularly.
Check Out: 3 Reasons RR Lost To PBKS IPL 2025
1) Rajasthan’s Middle Order Blows / Chasing Woes
The Rajasthan Royals have had trouble chasing targets in IPL 2025. If this team were even slightly competent in the art of a run chase, they would be battling for a place in the playoffs right now. In multiple matches this season, the Men in Pink have gotten off to a fine start in a chase, kept up the run rate in the middle overs, but failed to cross the finish line in the end, sometimes failing just in the last over.
Tonight, the story was no different. Chasing a target of 220, the Royals got off to an excellent start. The opening pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi lit the SMS Stadium alight. The opening pair raced up to 76 runs within five overs before Suryavanshi was dismissed for 40 off just 14 balls. This brought in returning team captain Sanju Samson.
Jaiswal kept up the flow of runs and scored his sixth half-century of the season, this one in just 24 deliveries. The 23-year-old is now the holder of the IPL 2025 Orange Cap with 523 runs in 13 matches. Once he was dismissed soon after scoring his 50, the team score was 109/2 in 8.4 overs as RR was cruising. But this is where the trouble began.
Sanju scored only 20 off 16 before getting out. In the form, Riyan Parag was dismissed for 13 off 11, and Shimron Hetmyer made 11 off 12. All three of these men made it difficult to keep up with the required run rate. Meanwhile, Dhruv Jurel kept his team in the game throughout.
But once again, with 30 runs required in the last two overs, Rajasthan tripped at the finish line and fell 11 runs short of the target, losing by 10 runs. In the death, Shubham Dubey scored seven off seven, and Wanindu Hasaranga was dismissed on a golden duck. Jurel himself got out in the final over after making 53 off 31.
As for the Punjab Kings, the spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Harpreet Brar put a stop to the flow of runs in the middle overs. While Chahal gave away 30 runs in four overs and took no wickets, Brar was the star of the show, taking three wickets in four overs and giving away just 22 runs.
Check Out: 3 Reasons RR Lost To PBKS IPL 2025
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