Qualifier 2 , PBKS Vs MI , IPL 2025 Highlights : Shreyas Iyer’s Epic Journey to Lead PBKS to an IPL 2025 Final After 11 Long Years.

QUALIFIER 2 , PBKS Vs MI , AHMEDABAD, IPL 2025 HIGHLIGHTS : Shreyas Iyer’s Epic Journey to Lead PBKS to an IPL 2025 Final After 11 Long Years.

Skipper Shreyas Iyer set the tone as PBKS rode on a easy chase to reach the final of IPL 2025 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) with a five-wicket win over MI in Qualifier 2. Shreyas hit an unbeaten 87 off 41 deliveries as PBKS chased down 204 with an over to spare. Josh Inglis set the platform with a whirlwind 21-ball 38, including 20 in an over from Jasprit Bumrah. Nehal Wadhera (48, 29) too contributed during his 84-run partnership with Shreyas who played second fiddle during the stand. Earlier, Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav’s cameos of 44 each helped Mumbai Indians to 203 for 6 in 20 overs. Suryakumar (38) and captain Tilak (34) stitched a 72-run partnership for the third wicket to set the platform for MI, while Naman Dhir’s 37 runs off 18 balls towards the end played a key part in milestoning the side past the 200-run mark after it was put in to bat. Shreyas Iyer’s Epic Journey to Lead PBKS to an IPL 2025 Final After 11 Long Years.

TOSS-

Punjab Kings won the toss and elected to field.

PLAYING XI-

Punjab Kings (Playing XI):

Priyansh Arya, Josh Inglis(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Shashank Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Kyle Jamieson, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal

Mumbai Indians (Playing XI):

Rohit Sharma, Jonny Bairstow(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya(c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Reece Topley

Punjab Kings Impact Subs:

Prabhsimran Singh, Praveen Dubey, Suryansh Shedge, Xavier Bartlet, Harpreet Brar

Mumbai Indians Impact Subs:

Ashwani Kumar, Krishnan Shrijith, Raghu Sharma, Robin Minz, Bevon Jacobs

MUMBAI INDIANS-

Rohit Sharma and Jonny Bairstow played singles for the first eight balls of the innings to have a look in before the England No.3 pulled Kyle Jamieson over square leg for six. The action began in the third over when Marcus Stoinis went for 15 but picked up Rohit Sharma as his first wicket of the season. PBKS was trying to contain Bairstow by bowling short against him for the whole match and also kept two fielders on the deep square leg boundary. Bairstow soon broke free, smashing Azmatullah Omarzai for a four and a six in the sixth over to get MI going.

Vijaykumar Vyshak, who impressed this season making his debut at this venue, bowled three knuckle balls into the surface against Bairstow and had him with one on the third ball of his spell. The MI opener found it hard to come with the change of pace, and eventually went for a ramp shot, and holed out to Josh Inglis behind the wicket. Back in the side, Yuzvendra Chahal bowled well only to be up against the genius of Suryakumar Yadav. The MI batter slog swept behind for six with three fielders on the leg side covering that shot. He made Chahal change his lines, and then smote him for a four through point. Tilak had some pace from the other end while Suryakumar crossed 700 runs for the season and went past 700 runs for the season with a four off Jamieson in the 13th over. Suryakumar also managed to get beyond 25 for the 16th time this season, but fell in the 14th over, after scooping a slog sweep off Chahal to the deep square leg fielder. PBKS got a bit of breathing space going into the death overs after Tilak perished in the following over, miscuing a big hit down the ground off a slower one from Jamieson.

For the first five balls of the phase, PBKS felt like they were well in control. Vyshak came on, and he bowled exactly that kind of over to Hardik Pandya and Naman Dhir until PBKS threw four extras on an overthrow. Arshdeep came on and took an oath in the name of all that is good against the approach of the opponent’s bowlers—-bowl as hard as possible into the pitch, drag the pace right out of the ball. Dhir hit a couple of fours short of fine and flicked a full one behind square for a boundary. They cleared the last ball without a maximum in the last five overs and got Hardik out cheaply. Still, Dhir’s cameo – 37 off 18 pushed MI past 200, a total target they’ve never failed to defend over the years in IPL.

PUNJAB KINGS-

Trent Boult’s pace bin uprooted Prabhsimran Singh in the third over, but Priyansh Arya resumed his fireworks against the Bumrah-Boult duo. Reece Topley, playing his first game of the season, did the same and also bowled slower through the night, but he overpitched and didn’t hit the blockhole. Josh Inglis arrived swinging for the fences throughout the first ball and took on Bumrah in the 20-run over with two fours and two sixes. Ashwani Kumar accounted for Arya on the opening ball of the next over.

Hardik Pandya snipped out the danger in the first over itself. Inglis edged the MI captain behind off a short, wide ball, and took a review with him. Hardik banged it short to the next two batsmen as well, and he almost got another breakthrough, only for Boult to put down a catch at fine leg to give Nehal Wadhera a chance. Just as Wadhera and Shreyas seemed to be taking the chase forward, Hardik reintroduced Bumrah for a quiet, seven-run over. Topley, though did not comeback well as Shreyas read the change-ups well and hit three consecutive sixes. Boult returned in the next over and began well, only for Wadhera to have the luck going his way when he top-edged a pull over short third for a boundary. Next ball, he smashes another and the momentum had began to shift in the direction of PBKS. Those two big overs meant PBKS could play carefully against Bumrah’s third and still go into death with the equation very much on their side.

Wadhera began this phase with six down the ground to apply early pressure on Ashwani, but the young pacer hit back by going wide outside off-stump to provoke a false stroke from the left-hander, who was pouched by Santner at cover. Shreyas, however, continued the sped up with a leg-side sniper that he clouted for a six. Boult was too good as he chased one between short third and backward point for a boundary. There was a twist when Shashank Singh was run out off a direct hit from Hardik but Shreyas managed another four through third man off Boult in the 16th. The clincher perhaps came in the following over when Shreyas managed to nudge a Bumrah yorker from deep inside the crease for a four. It gave him and Marcus Stoinis the flexibility to see out the remainder of the over for eight runs. Shreyas eventually brought the chase to an end in style smashing four sixes off Ashwani in the 19th over.

Brief Scores:

Mumbai Indians 203/6 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 44, Suryakumar Yadav 44, Naman Dhir 37; Azmatullah Omarzai 2-43) lost to Punjab Kings 207/5 in 19 overs (Shreyas Iyer 87\*, Nehal Wadhera 48; Hardik Pandya 1-19) by 5 wickets .