Punjab Kings chased down a 204-run target in just 19 overs, led by skipper Shreyas Iyer’s unbeaten 87 off just 41 balls in a crunch game against the Mumbai Indians in the second qualifier on Sunday in Ahmedabad. Punjab Kings will now be up against RCB in the final of IPL 2025.
Punjab Kings continued their smashing run in the 2025 edition of the IPL as Shreyas Iyer’s men came back strong from the blip in the first qualifier to prevail over the Mumbai Indians in the second and qualify for the franchise’s second final of IPL history. It was an ice-man walking in the form of Shreyas Iyer at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on early Monday morning as the captain came clutch, playing one of the innings of the tournament in one of the most calculated chases of the IPL as Mumbai Indians went down defending a 200-plus score for the first time in 18 years.
A 204-run chase is never easy and when it is a knockout for a place in the final, against one of the better bowling attacks of the tournament, losing both the in-form openers in the powerplay itself, it gets doubly difficult. However, Josh Inglis, Nehal Wadhera and skipper Iyer timed the chase to perfection, picking and choosing which bowlers to attack, which balls to attack and when to attack.
Inglis hitting 20 runs off Jasprit Bumrah in one over was probably one of the turning points of the chase. That over helped Shreyas Iyer take a back seat and let Inglis do his thing till the time he was in and forced the Mumbai Indians to rethink their strategy after their bank was looted in the middle of the night.
After Inglis departed, the next couple of overs went in the rebuilding phase for Punjab Kings, but Iyer and Wadhera both knew who and when they wanted to target. The first major run-flow in that partnership came in the 10th over of the innings, bowled by Hardik Pandya with the southpaw hitting a six and a four, including a dropped catch and Iyer also hitting a boundary.
Inglis taking apart Bumrah in the powerplay provided Iyer and Wadhera the luxury of calculation and not overdoing the attacking bit. Hence, they could play out Bumrah for 7 and 8 in his next two overs and compensate with 19 and 14 against Reece Topley and Trent Boult, respectively.
Ashwani Kumar dismissed Wadhera and a bit of lethargy cost Shashank Singh his wicket but Iyer had the game in control. “I was locked in,” he said after Harsha Bhogle mentioned that Iyer looked in a daze after the win without any extravagant celebration or reactions because he knew Punjab Kings had to play another big game in a bit less than 42 hours.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians rode on contributions from Jonny Bairstow, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Naman Dhir to post yet another total in excess of 200 as Punjab Kings’ bowling, apart from Kyle Jamieson, left a little to be desired.
This was Iyer’s 50th win as a captain in the IPL and now became only captain to lead three different franchises into the IPL final. Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru will have a date with destiny as IPL will have a new winner on Tuesday, June 3.