Virat Kohli Hails Rajat Patidar: Rajat Patidar, from Madhya Pradesh, led RCB to their maiden IPL title on Tuesday evening at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Less than 24 hours later, the RCB contingent was back in their hometown, Bengaluru, where they held a felicitation ceremony at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium to celebrate with the fans.
The RCB fans in Bengaluru came on the road in thousands just to get a glimpse of RCB’s team bus as it made its way from the hotel to the stadium, taking hours to do so amid a sea of fans.
Inside the Chinnaswamy Stadium, 25000 fans were allowed entry, while thousands waited on the street as well, as the celebration of RCB’s historic IPL title victory continued.
Inside, RCB’s biggest superstar, Virat Kohli, who has been with the franchise throughout the 18-season IPL history through all lows and heartbreaks year after year, gave a shout-out to Patidar, who became only the fourth player to win the IPL in his debut captaincy season, following on from Shane Warne (2008), Rohit Sharma (2013), and Hardik Pandya (2022).
Patidar was given the captaincy ahead of IPL 2025 after RCB didn’t retain or rebuy Faf du Plessis, their skipper since Virat Kohli had stepped down in 2020. Under Patidar, RCB finished second in the league table before defeating Punjab Kings in Qualifier 1 and the final.
While the victory in Qualifier 1 was a thumping one, the final went down the wire, and RCB escaped by only six runs, with Krunal Pandya bagging the Player of the Match award for his excellent spell of 2/17 in four overs.
I’ve never seen any fanbase in the world like this: Virat Kohli
Kohli is one of the few players who has been part of the IPL since 2008 and is still active, and the only one who has played all 18 seasons for a single franchise. Kohli and RCB had suffered three IPL final losses previously, in 2009, 2011, and 2016, when even Kohli’s god-mode form, wherein he piled up 973 runs but it weren’t enough for his side to win the title. The fourth time, though, was finally it for RCB.
At the celebrations on Wednesday in the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Virat Kohli said, “I’m going to start off by repeating what our captain said: it’s no more ee sala cum namde, it’s ee sala cup namdu. It’s for all of you—the fans, the people of this wonderful city, people who’ve supported RCB through thick and thin. I’ve never seen any fanbase of any team in the world like this franchise.”
With a simple one-liner, Kohli summed up the feat achieved by Patidar in leading RCB to the title. Kohli asked the crowd to give a huge roar for their skipper, saying, “I’m going to give the loudest cheer for him [Patidar].”
The fans obliged as they cheered at the top of their voices when Patidar got the mic in his hand.
He said, “Whenever I come here, I always like to start with namaskara Bengaluru. It was a great moment for us. From the start of the season, everyone was clear what we had to do. You all deserve the trophy. We all love you.”
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