Fans reacted to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) finally opening their account at home in IPL 2025. On Thursday, April 24, at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, RCB defeated the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 11 runs.
Phil Salt (23), who batted first, and Virat Kohli’s explosive 61-run partnership set the tone for RCB. Then, to put pressure on the RR bowlers, Devdutt Padikkal (50) and Kohli (70) extended their purple patch with a 95-run partnership.
Jitesh Sharma (20*) and Tim David (23) made brief appearances to raise RCB’s total to 205. With two wickets, Sandeep Sharma was the Royals’ best bowler.
Yashasvi Jaiswal (49 off 19) then gave RR a spectacular start by smashing bowlers throughout the park. But because of his termination, RR was forced to deal with a high needed run rate.
At this point, Riyan Parag (22) and Nitish Rana (28) were unable to maintain their pace. Dhruv Jurel was under pressure after Shimron Hetmyer (11), who played too many dot balls, was dismissed early.
Jurel (47) found his groove and placed RR in command with 18 runs needed from two overs. But Josh Hazlewood put on a strong show to dismiss Jurel and Jofra Archer (0) and give up only one run.
Yash Dayal then claimed a key wicket of Shubham Dubey (12) as RCB restricted RR to 194/9. With numbers of 4/33, Hazlewood was the home team’s main wrecker.
In anticipation of RCB finally ending the season’s winless streak in Bengaluru, fans prepared a variety of jokes. Among the memes was this one:
“Aakhir wo din aa hi gaya [The day has finally arrived]”
RCB fans: After finally winning a match at home and also realizing they still have 3 more matches to play there#RCBvsRR pic.twitter.com/c2FAlci5Du
— Adiiiii 🥀 (@ScrewThinkerr) April 24, 2025RCB HAVE WON THEIR GAME AT HOME THAT TOO WHILE DEFENDING! pic.twitter.com/GzLc7wfo5Z
— Yash. (@TheSDELad) April 24, 2025RCB wins its first home ground match
RCB fans tonight : #RCBvRR pic.twitter.com/zGIGmXtH3V
— SwatKat💃 (@swatic12) April 24, 2025“First win at home this season wow. 6 wins in 9 games now. The rest 3 games at home are going to be vs CSK, SRH, KKR. Will be really disappointing if RCB doesn’t end up in the top 2 after having such a great chance,” a user wrote.
“Wow, it’s finally over! That 11-month losing streak at home is done. RCB v RR, what a game! Congratulations, RCB,” another noted.
“RCB have finally done it!!! Won a home game, even while maintaining the tradition of losing the toss at home. That 19th over by Hazelwood was what set the tone, with Dayal making it game set and match in the final over. Good game,” a user posted.
Virat Kohli on RCB winning their first home game in IPL 2025
At last winning their first IPL 2025 home game, Virat Kohli exhaled with relief during the post-match presentation. According to Kohli, their strategy was flawless, and they won as a consequence:
“The first challenge here (at this venue) is to win toss and second half it becomes a bit of an advantage, we have been fighting hard to get a good score in the first few games, but the template today was for one guy to bat through and the rest of the batters can go attacking and today it really paid off.”
Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli also praised the M Chinnaswamy Stadium as the “best place” to play the game and expressed gratitude to the supporters for their steadfast support:
“It (this venue) is the best place to play cricket in the IPL, and the fans backed us during good and bad times. It is a special place and have a lot of special memories.”
Virat Kohli
