IPL Final: RCB vs PBKS - A Clash of Titans with Only One Winner

🕊️ End of an Era: The IPL's "Holy Trinity" Will Break Tonight For 18 seasons, fans of RCB, PBKS, and DC have lived in a parallel IPL universe — one without silverware but full of hope, heartbreak, memes, and moral victories. Social media christened them the "Holy Trinity" — three original teams, forever chasing glory, forever falling short. On Tuesday night in Ahmedabad, that trinity will break. Because Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings — the two OG franchises who have seen every IPL season without a title — will face off in a final that guarantees one of them will, at last, lift the trophy. The moment will be seismic. 🛑 The IPL Trophy Club Only seven franchises have ever won the IPL: CSK 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 MI 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 KKR 🏆🏆 RR, DC (Deccan Chargers), SRH, GT – 🏆 each (Note: Deccan Chargers no longer exist; GT and SRH weren’t part of the inaugural season.) That’s 7 out of 15 teams in IPL history. And among the ever-presents, just three have never won: RCB, PBKS, and DC. Tonight, that list will shrink. ⚔️ From Punchlines to Champions RCB and PBKS fans have known suffering: RCB: Finalists in 2009, 2011, 2016 — and now 2025 PBKS: Only one previous final, in 2014 Both franchises have gone through reinventions, rebuilds, resets — and yet, heartbreak has always returned. They’ve been meme-fodder, punchlines, “next year” teams — and through it all, their fanbases have remained loyal, proud, and self-aware. “RCB and PBKS fans don’t support a team — they live a story.” 💔 One Dream Dies, One Lives The emotion of Tuesday night will be double-edged. For one, redemption, release, and a new chapter in franchise lore. For the other, the pain will be compounded — 18 seasons and still no title, while a fellow sufferer moves on. Social media will be awash in joy and grief. The Holy Trinity will no longer be three. And for once, an IPL final won’t be about legacy or dominance — it will be about relief, release, and rewriting the story. No matter who wins on Tuesday night, the IPL 2025 final will leave one fanbase broken in a way only sport can manage. For Punjab Kings fans, it would be yet another pre-season reset — one more in a long, exhausting line — ending in heartbreak. Another chapter in a story that promised so much but faded at the final act. The kind of anticlimax that stings not because you didn’t believe, but because for once, you actually did. This campaign had all the makings of a sports-film script: A coach moving heaven and earth to bring in a captain with something to prove. The two of them crafting a dressing room where uncapped and unheralded players found space to shine. A team that, for the first time in years, looked like a team, not a collection of mismatched parts. It was hope — genuine, scary, heart-in-your-mouth hope — and for it to end now, just short of history, would feel crueler than the years of irrelevance. For Royal Challengers Bengaluru fans, it would be a fourth final, a fourth defeat, and the cruelest echo of all: the same old ending. This was the year it finally looked different. Not just because of the results — nine wins, a place at the top of the table — but because RCB finally found that elusive balance: Bat and ball in harmony. Flash and grit coexisting. A team that wasn’t built just for virality or star power, but built to win. And yet, if they fall short again, all that structural brilliance will count for little. Just another year of “almost.” Just another punchline. And for Virat Kohli, this one would cut deepest. He has carried the weight of this franchise, and of expectation itself, for nearly two decades. This year, he’s done it again: A record eighth IPL season with 500+ runs. Coming off an unparalleled year — T20 World Cup winner, Champions Trophy winner, farewell to Test cricket. He's given everything. On form, fitness, spirit — he’s still all-in. And yet, still no IPL trophy. Destiny, surely, cannot be planning an 18th trophy-less IPL season for the man who wears 18 on his back? Both teams Playing XI : Royal Challenger Bengaluru Virat Kohli, Phil Salt, Mayank Agarwal, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yash Dayal, Josh Hazlewood Punjab Kings Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Josh Inglis (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Kyle Jamieson, Arshdeep Singh, Harpreet Brar/Yuzvendra Chahal