Rajat Patidar leads RCB to another IPL title:Indore stars shine in final; Venkatesh Iyer delivers key innings and Nitin Menon officiates flawlessly

The city’s young captain, Rajat Patidar, played a crucial role in making Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) the IPL champions for the second consecutive year. Under his captaincy, Virat Kohli and other players delivered commendable performances. This year, 12 players from Madhya Pradesh were included by franchises in their IPL teams, four of whom are from Indore. Overall, there was an Indore connection in the IPL final. Besides captain Rajat Patidar and Venkatesh Iyer, Nitin Menon, who officiated the final, was also from Indore. While Rajat Patidar impressed everyone with his captaincy, Iyer gave a quick start, putting RCB on the path to victory in the final. Nitin Menon’s decisions were so precise that no team took a review. Throughout the match, players from Indore impressed with their performance. Played a match-winning innings for RCB In the mini-auction held in December 2025, Royal Challengers Bangalore included Venkatesh Iyer in their team for 7 crore rupees. Due to Phil Salt’s finger injury, RCB gave Iyer an opportunity to open. Iyer also played this match in place of Rajat. Iyer helped the team reach the playoffs, which included a match-winning innings of 73* runs against Punjab Kings. Rajat was the first uncapped player to score a century in the playoffs Rajat Patidar’s IPL journey has been very up and down. By scoring a century (unbeaten 112 runs) in 49 balls against Lucknow Super Giants in the 2022 Eliminator match, he became the first uncapped player to score a century in the IPL playoffs. In the year 2025, RCB management appointed Patidar as the team captain. Under his captaincy, RCB ended their 18-year drought by winning their first trophy in 2025 and then achieved the glory of becoming champions for the second consecutive time by defeating Gujarat Titans in the 2026 final.