Rajat Patidar, the captain of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, was fined for his team’s poor over-rate against the Mumbai Indians in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 Match No. 21 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Patidar was fined INR 12 lakhs because this was his team’s first offence of the season under Article 2.2 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct, which deals with minimum over-rate offences. The Match Referee’s ruling is definitive and enforceable for Level 1 violations of the Code of Conduct.
Both as a batter and as captain, Patidar had an outstanding performance. After the Mumbai Indians won the toss on Monday, the RCB in-charge was instructed to bat first. Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal put on an aggressive batting show, but Patidar’s scorching 64 off only 32 balls enabled RCB finish with 221/5 in the first innings.
As MI was cruising towards victory with dangerous batsmen Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma on strike to bring the curtains down, things went down to the last second when defending the mark. But thanks to Patidar’s brilliant strategic usage of the right bowlers at the appropriate times, they were able to keep the game in their grasp and win the thrilling final over by 12 runs, ending the team’s 10-year losing record at Wankhede.
It’s incredible to witness the bowlers’ bravery: Rajat Patidar
“The match was truly incredible. It was really challenging. It was incredible to observe how brave the bowlers displayed themselves. The bowling unit is the recipient of this honour. Stopping any team is difficult, especially at this stadium, and their performance was amazing.
It was incredible how well the fast bowlers carried out their strategies. It was difficult, but KP’s (Krunal Pandya) bowling in the final over was outstanding. At the post-match celebration, the Madhya Pradesh cricket player remarked, “The way he has shown the courage was fantastic.”
“It was fairly obvious (at the second time-out) that we needed to play the game as deep as possible before using KP for the final over. Batting on the wicket was very great. The ball was bouncing wonderfully off the bat and was a typical Mumbai wicket.
After Hardik’s over, I made the decision to give it my all and not worry about getting a wicket (on when they opted to break loose with the bat). (On Suyash Sharma) The primary bowler in this format is a wrist-spinner who takes wickets. It was incredible to watch how he bowled from the shorter end. I just wanted to influence the game and put pressure on the bowlers (with his batting),” he said.
India
