IPL 2025 | `Recruiting Krunal in the first place was crucial`: Andy Flower

Krunal Pandya’s unchanged four-over spell proved match-defining in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) title triumph over Punjab Kings on Tuesday night at the Narendra Modi Stadium here.

RCB head coach Andy Flower generously sang Hosannas for the left-handed all-rounder during his post-match media interaction. “Krunal is a big-match player and a great competitor and that spell (4-0-17-2) today [Tuesday] was the major difference between the teams,” reckoned Flower.

“This is Krunal’s fourth IPL title, so recruiting him in the first place was crucial. Getting the auction right is a huge step in the right direction,” Flower added.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru players celebrate with the Indian Premier League winner’s trophy in Ahmedabad on Tuesday. Pic/AFP

Krunal also earned the rare distinction of winning his second Player-of-the-Final award — not only for scoring runs for RCB, but also for choking the Punjab Kings batters during the middle overs. With the key wickets of Prabhsimaran Singh (26 off 22 balls) and Josh Inglis (39 runs off 23 balls), Krunal derailed the good start Punjab had while chasing the target of 191.

Flower agreed that he felt they were a few runs short at the half-way mark, “Yes, 190 didn’t seem like a huge score at this ground. As you know, the average winning score this season is around 220,” he said.

‘Not a below par score’

“But I wouldn’t say it was below par, because scoring 190 in a final, you’ve still got to play really well. We have a good bowling attack, and we trusted our bowlers would come to the party in the second innings,” the former Zimbabwean international pointed out.

Flower also revealed that the conditions were not perfect for the RCB batters when they were put in by Shreyas Iyer. “There was a bit of moisture in the pitch initially, and it held up a little, so that made batting a bit tricky in the first innings. We would have bowled first had we won the toss,” said Flower, widely considered to be one of the most successful T20 coaches in men’s cricket.

‘Inexperience cost us’

Punjab coach Ricky Ponting felt that a bit of inexperience in the middle order cost them the final. “The way we’ve played our cricket, it’s been a highly entertaining team to watch. But tonight, you could probably say that a bit of inexperience in the middle order cost us,” Ponting told reporters after the final, which his team lost by six runs.

“It was only a couple of days ago that we were here celebrating one of our great wins for the season to reach the final. Today [Tuesday], we probably feel we have let one slip. But with this group, being as young as it is, we’ll be back bigger and stronger next season,” the Australian great said optimistically.