Shreyas Iyer led from the front as PBKS completed a convincing chase to beat MI by five wickets in Qualifier 2,. They booked their place in the final of IPL 2025 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
Shreyas slammed an unbeaten 87 off 41 balls as PBKS chased down 204 with an over to spare.
Josh Inglis laid the foundation with a 21-ball 38, smashing 20 off an over from Jasprit Bumrah. Nehal Wadhera also hit 48 (29) during his 84-run stand with Shreyas, who played as second fiddle during the stand.
Warlier, Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav played crucial knocks of 44 each as Mumbai Indians posted 203 for 6 in 20 overs. The duo of Suryakumar and Tilak stitched 72 runs for the third wicket to lay a solid platform for MI.
Naman Dhir’s 37 off 18 balls towards the end played a huge role in helping MI go past the 200-run mark after the side was invited to bat first
Shreyas Iyer | Punjab Kings captain and Player of the Match: (On being calm while batting) I don’t know to be honest, I love such big occasions. I always say to myself and also to my colleagues in the team that the bigger the occasion, the calmer you are, you get the big results. Today was a right example where I was focusing more on my breathing rather than sweating out loud over there. (On chasing a 200+ target) As I mentioned right before the game that all players need to be assertive and show that intent from ball one. It’s just that they weren’t able to capitalize on the start they got but the intent was stupendous and even for me, I had to take some time. From the other end, the batsmen were striking pretty well. I know the more time I spend on the field, the better I get and my vision also gets better. (After the loss against RCB) Just throw the imagination and also the hiccup in the bin and not think too much about where we went wrong because throughout the season we’ve been playing amazing. The intent and the positivity was imperative right from the first game. One match can’t define us as a team.
Hardik Pandya | MI skipper: The way Shreyas batted, took his chances and some of the shots he played were really outstanding. I think they definitely batted really well. I think it was par, but it needed some great execution as a bowling unit which I think in these big games it really matters. And as I mentioned they were really calm, put us under pressure and I think we were not able to execute the way we wanted. I will not put it on the wicket. If we had to do something better it was maybe someone bowling right lengths or maybe the right bowler at the right point, the result could have been a bit different. In hindsight, it would have been different (whether he should have bowled Bumrah with 41 needed of 4 overs) and it would have been too early as well, Boom knowing the situation if even 18 balls are left Jassi can be Jassi and he can do something special and it just didn’t happen today.