New Chandigarh, May 29 (IANS) Opener Phil Salt scored a 23-ball fifty, his fastest fifty in the Indian Premier League (IPL), as Royal Challengers Bengaluru stormed into the title clash of the 2025 season with a crushing eight-wicket victory over Punjab Kings in a one-sided Qualifier 1 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.

After three-fers from Suyash Sharma and Josh Hazlewood helped RCB bundle out a power-packed PBKS batting line-up for 101 in 14.1 overs, Salt sizzled with some exquisite stroke-play to be unbeaten on 56 off 27, as the chase was completed with 10 overs to spare.

While RCB will now play their fourth IPL final on June 3 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, PBKS have another shot at making the final when they play Qualifier 2 against the winner of the Eliminator clash at the same venue on Sunday.

Chasing a paltry 102, Virat Kohli was off to a quick start with a pull of Arshdeep Singh, before glancing Kyle Jamieson for another boundary. Phil Salt made the most of the extra bounce by hammering Arshdeep for four and six respectively. But Kohli departed in a wicket maiden fourth over when Kyle Jamieson got a back-of-the-length ball around the sixth stump to shape away from him and catch his outside edge.

With the ball moving around, Jamieson got to beat Mayank Agarwal thrice, before the batter reviewed on the fourth occasion and got to reverse the on-field out call. Salt managed to calm RCB’s nerves by flaying and steering Azmatullah Omarzai deliveries for a brace of fours.

An on-drive from Agarwal was followed by Salt caressing a drive through cover, before pulling and lofting Jamieson to pick two fours and a six, as 21 runs came off the final power-play over. After RCB ended their power-play at 61/1, Salt cleared his front leg to clobber Harpreet Brar for six, before Agarwal lofted and drove Musheer Khan for six and four respectively.

But Musheer broke the 54-run stand as Agarwal got a feather edge on the flick and was caught at slip. Salt, though, marched forward to bring up his fifty off 23 balls and celebrated it by slashing Harpreet Brar for four. From there, RCB’s win was just a foregone conclusion as captain Rajat Patidar thumped Musheer for four, before hitting the winning runs with an amazing slog-sweep to ensure his team had a few days off, before playing the all-important title clash on June 3.

Brief scores:

Punjab Kings 101 all out in 14.1 overs (Marcus Stoinis 26, Prabhsimran Singh 18; Suyash Sharma 3-17, Josh Hazlewood 3-21) lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru 106/2 in 10 overs (Phil Salt 56 not out, Mayank Agarwal 19; Kyle Jamieson 1-27, Musheer Khan 1-27) by eight wickets

–IANS

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