The 18th edition of the Indian Premier League started on Saturday (March 22). Here’s the full list of Player of the Match performances in IPL 2025 so far.
Like other competitions, the Player of the Match award is given to the best performance in every IPL match. Krunal Pandya was the first recipient of the award in the tournament this year for his match-winning 3-29 in four overs for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL 2025 curtain-raiser against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.
Krunal picked up the big wickets of opposition captain Ajinkya Rahane, Venkatesh Iyer and Rinku Singh between overs 11 and 15 to put breaks in the innings of KKR, who were 107-2 at the ten-over mark. The left-arm spinners guile ensured KKR were restricted to 174-8. In response, RCB scored their second-highest powerplay score (80) to gun down the total in 16.2 overs with seven wickets in hand.
Another shout-out of gratitude to the world's best fans for their unwavering support. 🤗❤️#PlayBold #ನಮ್ಮRCB #IPL2025 pic.twitter.com/9zOCyRjbhm
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) March 23, 2025
Who has won most Player of the Match awards in the IPL?
South Africa great AB de Villiers holds the record for the most Player of the Match awards (25) in the IPL. Most of his accolades came while representing Royal Challengers Bengaluru between 2011 and 2021. Close behind de Villiers is another RCB legend, Chris Gayle, who has 22 awards to his name.
Gayle is closely followed by Rohit Sharma (19), David Warner (18), and Virat Kohli (18) in the top five of this elite club. While Warner went unsold this year, Rohit and Kohli are still active in the competition and have a realistic chance to break the all-time record.
IPL 2025: Player of the Match winners so far
Match 1: KKR vs RCB (Kolkata) – Krunal Pandya (3-29)
Match 2: SRH vs RR (Hyderabad) – Ishan Kishan (106*)
Match 3: CSK vs MI (Chennai) – Noor Ahmad (4-18)
