Former India player turned commentator Aakash Chopra has applauded Jitesh Sharma and Liam Livingstone for stitching together a game-changing partnership in the IPL 2025 final between the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and the Punjab Kings (PBKS) as well. He added that RCB would have been in a spot of bother had that partnership been broken early as well. However, Jitesh and Livingstone added 36 runs for the fifth wicket off just 12 balls when RCB were 131/4 after 14.5 overs in the IPL 2025 final.
Reflecting on RCB’s innings in a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra,’ he said, “Jitesh Sharma was with Liam Livingstone, and the game would have been stuck if that partnership had gotten broken, and there were chances of that happening, as Liam Livingstone wasn’t in form, and the other players had gotten out before that. I thought the game changed there.”
“Kyle Jamieson came to bowl an over. They scored runs against him and changed the game a little more. I thought that made a huge difference in the end because the runs weren’t that much where you would say you would get a clear-cut winner. The runs were enough to fight, and that’s what happened later. I thought that partnership was absolutely critical,” he further added.
Reflecting on PBKS’ bowling, Aakash Chopra added that Arshdeep Singh brought them back into the game with an outstanding final over as well.
“I liked the way Arshdeep bowled the last over – three runs and three wickets. He changed the game a little, although he was expensive at the start. In fact, at the start, it seemed like he was the only guy who wasn’t following the plan. Everyone else had a plan to bowl short and use the side boundaries, or bowl a few cutters and push the batters on the back foot,” he said.
“Everyone had a buy-in to that plan, but Arshdeep wasn’t doing that. However, he came in the end and bowled an over. He reduced at least 15 runs from the total that was eventually going to be scored. I thought that was an incredible effort from Arshdeep Singh. He was brilliant,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
