Punjab Kings (PBKS) fell short by just six runs against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the IPL 2025 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on June 3.

Asked to bat first, RCB posted 190/9 on the board. While Virat Kohli was the top scorer with 35-ball 43, the likes of Patidar (26 off 16), Liam Livingstone (25 off 15) and Jitesh Sharma (24 off 10) made valuable contributions with the bat.

In reply, PBKS could manage only 184/7 in 20 overs, thanks mainly to Shashank Singh (61 not out) and Josh Inglis 39.

With the ball, Krunal Pandya (2-17 in 4 overs) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-38 in 4 overs) produced magical spells for RCB.

A week after the title clash, PBKS batter Nehal Wadhera attributed the defeat to his own performance.

Wadhera believes he misjudged the pacing of his innings and should have been more aggressive instead of focusing on taking the game deep. He scored 15 runs off 18 balls in the all-important final.

“I totally blame myself," Wadhera told Hindustan Times. “If I had played better at that time, we could have definitely won. I won’t blame the pitch because RCB scored 190 runs."

“I think I was just taking the game deep, and I believe in finishing games by taking it deep. I think this was one of those days when I couldn’t finish the game. When I had to accelerate in all the tournament, whenever I accelerated, I think it paid off except for the last game," he added.

Wadhera, who returned with 369 runs at a strike rate of 145.84 in the IPL 2025 season, also admitted to have learned from this experience.

“Some days, it doesn’t click, and I think it was the same day when it didn’t happen. But I don’t have any regrets that I was taking the game deep, and that situation was fine because the wickets were falling, but I think I could have accelerated a little more, which I have learnt and analysed. I will do that in the future and that will help me and the team," he remarked.

While the defeat in the final is certainly heartbreaking, Nehal Wadhera is pleased with PBKS’s overall season.

“…we reached the finals after 11 years. I think it’s a huge achievement for us. The key results didn’t go in our favour but if we talk about the campaign, it was really good. I think we were the team that scored more than 200 runs in 7 matches, and as a batting group, we scored 3000 runs in just one season. I think it’s a huge achievement for us," he said.