Ahmedabad, June 4 (IANS) Krunal Pandya produced a Player of the Match performance to help Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) claim their first-ever Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Tuesday.

Pandya, who was bought by RCB for Rs 5.75 crore in the IPL 2025 mega auction, put on all the tricks at his disposal and refused to let the Punjab Kings batters dictate the proceedings on the day.

His figures of 2-17, which included the absolutely crucial wickets of Prabhsimran Singh and Josh Inglis, completely turned the game on its head and sealed the crucial victory.

Krunal revealed that in his first conversation with the franchise, he told RCB that he likes to win trophies and delivered on his promise by setting up the victory.

“When we batted, we realised the slower you bowl, the better it is. In this format, you need guts to do it. I just backed myself and thought I’d vary my pace and keep it on the slower side more often. My biggest strength has been to learn what the situation requires. I knew I had to be brave to get wickets tonight. Thought I’d do that by bowling slow. If you’d have bowled quick, it’d have been a good wicket. But if you mixed it up, it was tougher. Pitch actually got easier in the second innings,” said Krunal while collecting the POTM trophy.

“Have enjoyed my time with RCB so far. I told them on day one that I like to win trophies. I told Hardik too that the Pandya household will have nine trophies in 11 years,” he added.

Krunal has won four IPL titles, three with the Mumbai Indians, and his performance on Tuesday was his second Player of the Match in the IPL Finals after 2017 when he scored 47 off 38 balls to help Mumbai Indians win the title by beating the now-defunct Rising Pune SuperGiants.

–IANS

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