Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) defeated Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the IPL 2025 Qualifier 1 as they became the first team to qualify for the final of the tournament. They did so after 9 years, as they now have the chance to finally get their hands on their first trophy after 18 years. In final, they will once again take on PBKS, who qualified to play the match after winning Qualifier 2 vs Mumbai Indians. Former PBKS captain Virender Sehwag has openly declared his support for RCB in the final. However, there is a twist.

In an interaction with Cricbuzz, Virender Sehwag has said that whichever team he openly supports tends to lose, be it the Gujarat Titans (GT) in the Eliminator, the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Qualifier 1 and the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Qualifier 2. All of these teams lost their matches. He also added that when he openly supports India, they tend to lose their matches.

Hence, in a way, he meant to say that he is supporting PBKS n the final, but is declaring open support for RCB so that they lose the summit clash.

"I think RCB will win. I have decided to go back to my old form because I have seen the team I support tend to lose, be it GT in the match against MI or Punjab Kings in the Qualifier 1 against RCB. Today, I supported MI vs. PBKS in qualifier 2; they lost their matches," Sehwag said.

"This is also the case with the Indian team. When I openly supported them, they went on to lose that match," he added.

RCB and PBKS have played 36 matches in IPL history, and both sides have equal footing on each other. Bith have won 18 games each. However, this season, RCB has had the upper hand. Out of the three games that the two sides have played in IPL 2025, RCB have won two of these.

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