Virat Kohli couldn’t hold back his emotions as Royal Challengers Bengaluru finally ended their 18-year wait for an IPL title. But in the moment of triumph, Kohli made sure two of RCB’s greatest stalwarts — AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle — were front and centre in the celebration. After RCB defeated Punjab Kings by six runs in a tense IPL 2025 final, Kohli dedicated the title to the two legendary former teammates who shaped the franchise’s identity alongside him. “I have spent my prime years with them. I know how much we tried to win this. We were so close a couple of times, and we were such a good team; we had the explosiveness, but we could never cross the line. We gave our prime years to this franchise,” Kohli said, visibly emotional in his post-match chat with broadcasters. De Villiers and Gayle were on the sidelines at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium, witnessing the final chapter of a dream they once relentlessly pursued with Kohli. The trio were instrumental in RCB’s rise as one of the IPL’s most-followed teams, with the 2016 season — where they narrowly missed the title — etched in memory. @@@@