The 20th IPL 2025 match features the Mumbai Indians (MI) hosting the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on April 7, 2025, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. RCB came into this match on the back of 2 wins in 3 games, while MI had one win in 4 matches.

Hardik Pandya won the toss and chose that MI would bowl first. Jasprit Bumrah returned to action for MI, while RCB played with the same XI.

Trent Boult dismissed Phil Salt on the second ball of the first over for 4 runs, but then Devdutt Padikkal (37) and Virat Kohli added 91 runs for the second wicket. Virat Kohli made 67 with 8 fours and 2 sixes before getting out to Hardik Pandya.

After his wicket, RCB accelerated with captain Rajat Patidar (64 with 5 fours and 4 sixes) and Jitesh Sharma (40* in 19 balls with 4 sixes and 2 fours) and finished with a handsome total of 221/5. For MI, Hardik Pandya and Trent Boult took 2 wickets each.

After the RCB innings, Virat Kohli got into conversation with the commentators and explained his knock and the RCB innings in detail.

“That was pretty good. After losing a wicket on the second ball, we countered pretty nicely. Dev played a brilliant impact knock for us, really changing the momentum towards us. I have a few going as well. That partnership was really important for us to set that total on the board. My strength is to get my touch and feel of the ball early on, then I can play the shots that I want to. I tried to innovate a bit, tried to play different shots off spin as well, and then tried to hit different areas of the ground,” Kohli told the official broadcasters.

“You need to keep evolving your game and keep up with the demands of the situation in T20 cricket. When I time the ball nicely early on, I have better chances to contribute. (On Padikkal) When Salty goes early, one of the guys needs to have an impact straightaway, and Dev kind of did that for us. He's done that for 2-3 games now; a big score is around the corner for him. He deserves it; he's hitting the ball so well,” he added.

Kohli was also praiseful of the partnership in the end between Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma that propelled RCB's total over 200 runs.

“That partnership was important for us to go deeper into the innings and get guys like Jitesh Livi and Tim David towards the back end of the innings. What Rajat did is what Rajat does most often. It was a great innings by those two as well—Rajat and Jitesh really got us those extra 20-25 runs. One of their spinners was out of the game. It was difficult for the Chinaman to bowl. That gave us 20-25 runs. What happened with wickets not falling was one of their spinners was out of the game, and that played out to be an important factor for us because we knew once the spinner was out of the game, then the fast bowler with shorter boundaries would find it tough,” Kohli said.

Virat Kohli also spoke about the Wankhede Stadium wicket and talked about how RCB will look to end their winless streak in Mumbai.  

“The wicket wasn't as straightforward as it seemed. Hardik was taking pace off the ball consistently and wasn't really coming onto the bat. We have a good score on the board. We were how many? I don't know. We haven't won in Chepauk for 17 years; hopefully, we break that jinx today (RCB has lost their last six matches vs. MI at this venue). We've got a strong bowling line-up; early inroads in the powerplay will really help,” Kohli signed off.