May 28, 2025 - Thanks to a captain’s knock by Jitesh Sharma, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by 6 wickets in the 70th league match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. The match was played on May 27, 2025, at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.

RCB won the toss and chose to bowl first. With the help of captain Rishabh Pant’s unbeaten 118 runs and Mitchell Marsh’s 67 runs, Lucknow scored a big total of 227 runs for 3 wickets in 20 overs.

In response, Virat Kohli scored 54 runs, and acting skipper Jitesh played an explosive innings, scoring an unbeaten 85 runs off 33 balls, which included 8 fours and 6 sixes. He got good support from Mayank Agarwal, who remained not out on 41 runs. The two shared an unbroken partnership of 107 runs for the fifth wicket. With this, RCB won the match by 6 wickets in 18.4 overs, losing 4 wickets in total, and secured a place in the top 2 of the IPL 2025 playoffs.

Karthik's Advice Was Key

Speaking at the post-match presentation, Sharma said, "I can't believe I have played such an innings. I was just trying to stay in the moment and remain at the crease. I can't express my feelings in words right now."

“My mentor Dinesh Karthik told me that if I take the match till the end, I have the skill to win it for the team."

He added that after Kohli got out, he tried his best to take the match till the end - and succeeded. He added, "There was a lot of pressure on me today, but I enjoyed it. Watching Virat bhai, Krunal bhai and Bhuvneshwar bhai gives me a lot of confidence."

When asked about the upcoming qualifier match, Jitesh said, "Right now, I just want to enjoy this victory and recover from the fatigue.