“You need many heroes, not one or two” - Sanjay Manjrekar points out interesting stats after RCB vs SRH IPL 2025 match

The recently concluded game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 saw the SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) playing spoilsport to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) party with a win at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar had an interesting take on a specific statistic after the game on Friday, May 23.

While four teams have qualified for the playoffs, no team has managed to confirm a spot in the top two yet. Manjrekar made an interesting point as he observed the number of players to have received the 'Player of the Match' award for the qualified teams.

He said that for a team to be consistent in the shortest format of the game, they shouldn’t rely on one or two players, but must have multiple heroes standing up to the occasion. Providing a count of the number of players to have won the POTM for the Gujarat Titans (GT), Punjab Kings (PBKS), Royal Challengers, and Mumbai Indians (MI), Majrekar wrote on X:

“To be a consistent T20 team you need many heroes not one or two. Let’s have a look at how many different players have been POTM for the 4 playoff teams. GT - 5, RCB - 7, PBKS - 5, MI - 7 Hmm…😊"

RCB slip one spot in standings after loss to SRH

With a defeat against SRH, Bengaluru slipped to third position from second in the points table, as PBKS moved one spot up, courtesy of a better NRR. The Royal Challengers needed to win on Friday to make sure they finished their campaign inside the top two to play Qualifier 1.

If RCB finish third in the table, they’ll play the Eliminator, and a loss there would kick them out of the race to the final. That is not the case with the team losing Qualifier 1, as they get a chance to redeem themselves against the winner of Eliminator in Qualifier 2.