Punjab Kings defeat Mumbai Indians to enter IPL 2025 finals; will face RCB for the title
Punjab Kings have made it to the final of IPL 2025 by defeating Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets in Qualifier-2. Now Punjab Kings (PBKS) will be seen playing the final of the 18th season of the Indian Premier League with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on June 3 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. With this defeat, Mumbai Indians’ journey in IPL 2025 has come to an end. PBKS entry into the final also ensures that there will be a first time winner of the IPL this year. Both teams have been runner-up in the earlier editions.
Shreyas Iyer takes another franchise to IPL finals
The entire credit for the victory in this match goes to Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer. Shreyas came to the crease in the third over and stayed at the crease till the end of 19 overs to give his team victory and take them to the final. With this, Punjab has made it to the final of IPL after 11 years. After IPL 2014, now Punjab will be seen playing its second final in IPL 2025.
For this brilliant performance, he was also chosen as the Player of the Match. With this, Shreyas Iyer has become the first captain to take 3 teams to the finals in the history of IPL. He has taken Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders and now Punjab Kings to the finals of IPL. He also made KKR the winner of 2024 under his captaincy.
Punjab made it to the final by defeating Mumbai by 5 wickets
After losing the toss in this match, Mumbai Indians batted first and scored 203 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. Punjab Kings scored just 207 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 19 overs and won by 5 wickets with 6 balls to spare and made a bang in the final of IPL 2025. Captain Shreyas Iyer made an important contribution for Punjab Kings in this match.
Nehal Wadhera and Shreyas Iyer made a great partnership
To chase the target of 204 runs given by Mumbai Indians to win, Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh came to open the innings for Punjab Kings. Prabhsimran returned to the pavilion after scoring 6 and Priyansh 20 runs. For Punjab, Jose Inglis played an innings of 38 runs with 5 fours and 2 sixes in 21 balls. The partnership of 84 runs for the third wicket between captain Shreyas Iyer and Nehal Wadhera was important in giving victory to Punjab. Incidentally, this was also the first time a team was successfully able to chase over 200 runs against Mumbai.
Nehal played an innings of 49 runs with 4 fours and 2 sixes in 29 balls for the team. Captain Shreyas played an unbeaten innings of 87 runs and gave the team victory. Iyer gave victory to Punjab by hitting a six on Ashwini Kumar’s ball and confirmed the ticket to the final. Iyer scored 87 runs in 41 balls with the help of 5 fours and 8 sixes at a strike rate of 212.19. For Mumbai, Trent Boult and Hardik Pandya took 1-1 wickets while Ashwini Kumar took 2 wickets.
