Jitesh Sharma, stand-in captain of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), played an amazing knock as the franchise successfully chased down 227 runs against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the final IPL 2025 league stage game.
Sharma hammered 85* with 8 fours and 6 sixes and added over 100 unbeaten runs with Mayank Agarwal (41*) as RCB defeated LSG by 6 wickets in Lucknow, after Virat Kohli had laid the foundation with a sublime 54-run knock.
Earlier, Rishabh Pant’s 118* and Mitchell Marsh’s 67 runs and their 152-run partnership propelled LSG to 227/3. However, Jitesh’s demolishing knock took LSG’s mountain of the total down and sent RCB into Qualifier 1, where they will face PBKS on May 29 on Thursday.
Jitesh Sharma won the Player of the Match for his match-winning knock and credited RCB mentor and batting coach Dinesh Karthik for believing in himself for finishing the game.
“I won’t be able to express my thoughts. I still cannot believe that I played such an innings. I was trying to stay in the moment and watch the ball as closely as possible.
I wasn’t thinking of anything at that time. When Virat Kohli got out, I decided to take the game deep. Like my mentor, guru Dinesh Karthik Anna told me, ‘Any situation, you have to take the game deep, and you have the caliber that you can finish the game anytime,” Jitesh said during the post-match presentation.
When Jitesh was on 49, bowler Digvesh Rathi saved him with a backfoot no-ball. With Jitesh out of his crease, Digvesh requested a run out at the non-striker's end in the same over, but the third umpire declared it not out.
Jitesh took advantage of the opportunities and led his team to victory.
“I was getting cramps because there was a lot of pressure on me. It is a big franchise, but I am enjoying the pressure. I have Virat bhai, Krunal bhai, Bhuvi bhai. When I look at them, I get excited that I am playing with such big names. I enjoy that pressure," Jitesh said.
This is the first time since IPL 2016 that RCB has finished in the top two of the points table in the league stage.
