Stand-in captain Jitesh Sharma scored an impressive unbeaten 85 to help Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) achieve a remarkable milestone that no other team has reached in the Indian Premier League (IPL). In their last league match of IPL 2025 at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium on Tuesday, RCB secured a solid six-wicket victory over Lucknow Super Giants. They chased down a 228-run target with eight balls left, marking their highest successful chase and the third-highest total in IPL history.
With this win, RCB made history by winning all seven away matches this season, becoming the first team to have an unbeaten away record in a season that includes home and away games. Previous teams like Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Mumbai Indians (MI) got seven wins in 2012 but each lost one away match.
This victory also bumped RCB up to second place on the points table, a position they haven’t held since 2016, finishing with 19 points. They were just behind Punjab due to a lower net run rate.
RCB’s win was the second time a team has successfully chased over 200 runs at Lucknow’s venue, the first being Sunrisers Hyderabad’s chase of 206 against Lucknow on May 19.
Lucknow’s bowling attack struggled, particularly New Zealand’s Will O’Rourke, who took two wickets but gave away 74 runs in his four overs, making it one of the most expensive bowling performances in the tournament’s history.
The match had its ups and downs, with Lucknow’s captain Rishabh Pant smashing 118 runs to set a challenging target of 227/3. In response, Virat Kohli and Phil Salt built a strong start, and Jitesh Sharma (85) along with Mayank Agarwal (41) carried Bengaluru to their highest run chase in the tournament.
Having finished second in the group, Bengaluru is set to face Punjab Kings in Qualifier 1 on Thursday, while Gujarat will take on Mumbai Indians in the Eliminator on Friday.