Punjab Kings (PBKS) will take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Qualifier 1 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 on Thursday, May 29. The match is set to be held at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, also known as New PCA Stadium, in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh. This game is important for both teams since the winner will go straight to the final. The losing team will have another shot, facing the winner of the Eliminator in Qualifier 2.
With a spot in the final on the line, PBKS, led by Shreyas Iyer, and RCB, with Jitesh Sharma as the stand-in captain, will be ready to put up a good fight. The pitch at the stadium is likely to be good for batting and favors fast bowlers. The average score in the first innings is around 170, and out of the 9 games played there, only three have seen teams score over 200 runs. It’s expected that the team winning the toss will choose to bowl first since dew can affect the game later on.
As for the weather, AccuWeather predicts that it will be about 35 degrees Celsius at the start of the match and will cool down to around 28 degrees by the end. Humidity will be between 38% and 51% during the game, and the sky should stay clear with very little chance of rain.