RCB’s Josh Hazlewood celebrates after the wicket of PBKS Shreyas Iyer, during the IPL 2025 match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) vs Punjab Kings (PBKS), at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru on April 18, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Murali Kumar K

Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacer Josh Hazlewood said an atypical Chinnaswamy pitch and the batsmen’s inability to put learnings from previous matches into practice contributed to his team’s third straight defeat at home.

The Royal Challengers succumbed to Punjab Kings by five wickets in a 14-over-a-team match on Friday night after losing against Gujarat Titans and Delhi Capitals here earlier.

“Yeah, I think it’s not a typical Chinnaswamy wicket. Obviously the bounce has always been there, but it’s in past years, it’s probably been more consistent,” said Hazlewood in the post-match press conference.

It may be recalled that RCB mentor Dinesh Karthik too was not satisfied with the 22-yard strip on offer here and wanted to have a talk with the local curator after their defeat against the Capitals.

Hazlewood said the lack of a strong power play segment added to RCB’s woes.

“Yeah, it’s obviously three [defeats] in a row now at home. It’s just we’ve probably been a bit slow on the learnings from the first two games and didn’t put that into practice as well as we could have, probably in those first probably six to eight overs, obviously, with the score the way it was,” he added.

However, the New South Welshman was confident in his team’s ability to buck the frustrating trend at the earliest.

“But we’ll dive into this game and, you know, probably more so when we get back to Bangalore and really go through in detail and with a fine tooth comb and come up with a few ideas of where we can learn and improve.

“I think the bowling definitely improved from the last two outings. So sort of we’re slowly getting there, but probably not quick enough,” he said.

Hazlewood had a word of advice to his colleagues in the batting front — step back for a moment and try to assess the conditions before going for big shots.

“So, maybe, it might be a case of pulling back a touch and giving yourself a little bit of time. I know in the first two games we lost here it was a batter on the other team going big and getting a partnership and scoring big late in the game.

“So if we can have our top five, top six doing the batting for the 20 overs, I think that’ll go a long way to helping us win,” he explained.

Nehal batted very well: Brar

Punjab Kings spinner Harpreet Brar paid handsome compliments to middle-order batter Nehal Wadhera for managing a small chase with composure.

Wadhera’s unbeaten 33 off 19 balls tilted the balance of the game decisively in favour of PBKS in the chase of 96 after the tourists were at a slightly tricky 53 for four.

“Nehal is a very good player. He has been playing in the IPL for the last 2-3 years. He does well domestically as well. Recently, when we won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he played very well in the knockouts. As a senior, I feel very proud,” said Brar.

Brar himself had a good game taking the wickets of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal in successive balls in the 12th over.

Brar, who was playing the first match of the season, said he was ready to bowl in the end stages of the RCB innings.

“In small matches, you have to be on your toes. You can get an over anytime. I was ready. It was my first game of the season. I didn’t know that I would bowl in the last over,” he added.

Christian Horner, Team Principal of Oracle Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing in the garage during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia at Jeddah Corniche Circuit on April 18, 2025 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Ahead of Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this Formula 1 season is looking like McLaren vs. McLaren. Still, defending champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull says he hasn’t lost hope.

McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are the only ones to consistently have the pace through the first four rounds of the championship.

That was true again in practice Friday, although Norris was surprisingly beaten to top spot by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Norris has a three-point lead but admits he isn’t at his best, while Piastri is the driver with momentum after winning in Bahrain last week.

Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes have all had their moments, but none has been a consistent challenger, as McLaren’s 58-point constructors’ championship lead shows.

Gasly was just .007 of a second faster than Norris in a tight first practice session Friday at the high-speed Jeddah track, where drivers speed between concrete walls either side of the course.

Charles Leclerc of Ferrari was .07 off Gasly in third and Piastri fourth, barely a tenth of a second off the pace.

Lewis Hamilton was eighth fastest in the other Ferrari, just ahead of the two Red Bulls of Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda. Verstappen told his team the car felt “very loose” in high-speed corners.

Verstappen is the only non-McLaren driver to win a Grand Prix this season, but in Bahrain he was struggling so much that Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko said he was concerned the Dutch star might consider his future.

Verstappen said this week he wasn’t considering the championship picture this early in the season.

“I’m not thinking about that. I just go race by race,” he said. “I think at the moment, of course, we are not the quickest. So then naturally, it’s very tough to fight for a championship, but it’s still a very long road … I’m hopeful that we can still improve things and we’ll see what we get.”

Two-time champion Fernando Alonso dampened speculation Verstappen could seek to join his team, Aston Martin, after Red Bull car designer Adrian Newey made that move last year.

Asked if he’d welcome being Verstappen’s teammate, Alonso said Thursday: “Yes, but it’s unlikely to happen. Very unlikely.”

Alonso’s current teammate is Lance Stroll, son of team owner Lawrence Stroll.

Jeddah hosts the fifth race in six weeks in a hectic start to the season, which stays at a record 24 races. There’s a little respite after Saudi Arabia, with two weeks till the next event in Miami.

“I think it’s on the upper end of the limit. It feels like race 10 already,” said Williams driver Alex Albon, adding it’s especially tough on mechanics and other crew members.

“As drivers, we travel better than everyone else in the paddock. We stay in better hotels than everyone else in the paddock — it’s just a function of being in a privileged position. With mechanics … these are people with families. These are the people that really struggle.”

The rookies are still enjoying their first taste of F1, though.

“It’s just the beginning of my career, so I just want to keep racing and keep driving,” said Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto. “I’m learning new things every single weekend, so for me, if I could have another race next weekend, I would be very happy as well.”

PBKS Nehal Wadhera, and RCB’s Virat Kohli, during the IPL 2025 match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) vs Punjab Kings (PBKS), at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru on April 18, 2025.
| Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar

Royal Challenger Bengaluru’s home woes continued as the side slipped to a five-wicket defeat to Punjab Kings in the IPL here on Friday. RCB did put up a brave fight in defence of a 96-run target, but could not prevent a third straight loss at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

In a rain affected outing, RCB was on the back foot right from the start, having lost a crucial toss. Batting first proved to be tough ask on a sticky pitch, and the home team did itself no favours by making an odd change to the playing eleven. Southpaw batter Devdutt Padikkal was dropped in favour of leg-spinner Suyash Sharma, even though it was RCB which took first strike.

The move proved to be disastrous, as RCB crawled to 95 for nine in the reduced 14 overs.

In the chase, PBKS suffered a tremor when Shreyas Iyer and Josh Inglis were sent back in quick succession. Hopes of an RCB comeback, however, was dashed by a composed Nehal Wadhera (33 n.o., 19b, 3×4, 3×6).

After persistent rain delayed the start of play by over two hours, RCB openers Phil Salt and Virat Kohli finally made their way out to take strike. The sticky pitch made strokeplay near impossible, but the RCB batters were unprepared to change their gameplan. Salt, Kohli and Liam Livingstone tried to force the pace and paid the price. Length deliveries were skied high without timing, resulting in catching practise. The PBKS fielders were up to the task, with Marco Jansen and Priyansh Arya pulling off fine grabs to dismiss Kohli and Livingstone respectively.

RCB continued to lose wickets in a heap, a result of more reckless shots. When Impact Player and local lad Manoj Bhandage was removed by Jansen, RCB fell into a deep hole at 42 for seven.

The lowest T20 score recorded at this venue — 82 by RCB in the first ever IPL game, in 2008 — loomed perilously close. It took a fighting unbeaten 50 from Tim David to keep RCB afloat, even if the ship would eventually sink.