PBKS vs MI | Shreyas Iyer leads Punjab Kings into IPL 2025 finals with special knock

‌Brief score: MI 203/6 (20) [Suryakumar Yadav 44(26), Tilak Varma 44(29); Azmatullah Omarzai 2/43(4)] lost to PBKS 207/5 (19) [Shreyas Iyer 87*(41), Nehal Wadhera 48(29); Ashwani Kumar 2/55(4)] by five wickets.

After being put into bat, Mumbai Indians had to wait for more than two hours to start their innings in their Qualifier 2 match against Punjab Kings with persistent rains calling the shots at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Though Rohit Sharma departed in the third over, Bairstow looked in great nick smashing two sixes and three fours in the powerplay as MI powered to 65/1 at the end of the powerplay. With the Englishman’s dismissal in the next over, MI’s top run-getter this season Suryakumar Yadav joined Tilak Varma in the middle. Varma was the aggressor scoring a six and a four off Vijaykumar Vyshak as Surya took his time to get into the groove. But the Indian T20 skipper took on Yuzvendra Chahal after the leg-spinner bowled a tidy first over with two sixes and a four in his next two overs. The pair had already added 72 runs in seven overs when Surya holed out in the deep off Chahal with MI dominating the middle phase once again. With Tilak also departing in the next over, Mumbai looked in a spot of bother with the score reading 142/4. But Naman Dhir, as he has done throughout the season, came up with a wonderful cameo to take MI past the 200-run mark. His 18-ball 37, which included seven fours, helped MI score 61 runs in the final six and finish at 203/6. For PBKS, Azmatullah Omarzai was the pick among the bowlers as he picked up 2/43 in four overs while Kyle Jamieson and Chahal also finished with a wicket apiece.

In response, PBKS started off on the wrong foot losing in-form opener Prabhsimran Singh in the third over with the score reading just 13. But Josh Inglis provided the much-needed momentum to the chase smashing two sixes and two fours to amass 20 runs from Jasprit Bumrah’s first over as PBKS raced to 64/2 at the end of the powerplay. But his delightful cameo of 38 off 21 balls ended when he nicked a slower off-cutter from MI skipper Hardik Pandya to Jonny Bairstow. But Shreyas Iyer and Nehal Wadhera continued to find the boundaries to keep the required rate under check though the left-handed batter got a lucky reprieve when he was dropped by Trent Boult off Pandya in the 10th over. With that ball rolling to the boundary the over cost MI 17 runs with the equation coming to 106 off the last 10. Shreyas continued the surge tonking three sixes off Reece Topley while Wadhera hit back-to-back boundaries off Boult in the next over. The 84-run partnership off 47 balls for the fourth wicket ended when Wadhera was dismissed by Ashwani Kumar for a 29-ball 48. However, Shreyas continued his rich vein of form reaching his half-century, off just 27 balls, with a wonderfully-placed boundary. He looked in supreme touch as he guided a full-blooded yorker from Bumrah to the third-man fence before launching on Ashwani with four huge sixes to complete the chase in the penultimate over. Shreyas Iyer finished as the top scorer in the contest with an unbeaten 41-ball 87, a knock which included eight sixes and five fours, to take Punjab Kings to their second final in the history of the IPL. For Mumbai, left-arm pacer Ashwani ended with figures of 2/55.