Ahmedabad, Jun 2: Skipper Shreyas Iyer shined by slamming an unbeaten 87 off 41 balls as Punjab Kings entered the IPL 2025 final with a five-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2 at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

PBKS will now meet Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the title clash on Tuesday, in what is a re-match of Qualifier 1 meeting.

MI being knocked out of the competition also means that IPL will have a new champion come Tuesday. Iyer stood tall with a knock full of sheer class and immaculate composure, including pacing it to near perfection, and get his team over the line in a chase of 204 with an over to spare.

Apart from hitting five fours and eight sixes, Iyer overcame early fluency struggles to single-handedly make PBKS win by literally leading from the front. He also shared a match-winning 84-run stand with Nehal Wadhera, who hit a blazing 29-ball 48.

Iyer has now captained two different teams – PBKS and Kolkata Knight Riders to back-to-back IPL finals. He also captained Delhi Capitals to IPL 2020 finals, and Qualifier 2’s result has made him the only skipper to achieve this fascinating feat.

Chasing 204, Prabhsimran Singh welcomed Trent Boult with a flicked four, before the left-arm pacer had the last laugh by having the right-handed batter top-edge a pull to a running short fine leg. Josh Inglis ensured PBKS’ didn’t lose the plot early on by scooping and pulling Boult for two boundaries.

Priyansh Arya stepped up the attacking mantle by flicking Reece Topley for four, before lofting him for six. The highlight of PBKS’ power-play came in the fifth over when Inglis carted Jasprit Bumrah for 20 runs – a flicked four was followed by a heaved six, before another flicked boundary and a top-edged maximum came off his blade.

But MI bounced back from that little onslaught as pacer Ashwani Kumar had Arya slicing to mid-off, with PBKS ending power-play at 64/2. Shortly after, Hardik Pandya struck when his off-cutter took a thin top-edge of Inglis’ pull and was caught by the keeper, with PBKS’ burning a review on their in-form batter.

Though Iyer and Nehal Wadhera hit some boundaries, including three coming off Hardik Pandya in the tenth over and the latter being dropped on 13 by Boult, Ashwani and Bumrah bowling tight 11th and 12th overs meant the asking rate pushed to 12. Sensing the need to get back in the chase, Iyer hit a hat-trick of sixes off Topley – a heave over backward square leg was followed by two lofts going over long-on and down the ground respectively.

It was followed by Wadhera getting two boundaries off Boult, including one coming off the leading edge. He then greeted Ashwani by slamming him down the ground for six, before the pacer struck by having the batter miscue to mid-off. Iyer marched on to bring up his fifty off 27 balls by squeezing Boult through backward point for four.

Though Shashank Singh was run-out cheaply, Iyer continued to open the bat face at the last moment to get two boundaries off yorkers. He then lofted Ashwani high over long-on for six, and followed it up by clobbering him over long-off on a free-hit. Iyer again lofted Ashwani over long-on for six, before launching him for another maximum to fire PBKS into an IPL final after 11 long years.

Previously, after two hours and 15 minutes of rain playing hide and seek, as well as of oscillating between drizzle and heavy downpour, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, and Naman Dhir dished out high tempo knocks to help MI post a challenging 203/6.

Suryakumar and Varma hit knocks of 44 each while Dhir applied finishing touches with an 18-ball 37 to take MI past 200-mark, despite a PBKS fightback in between. Once the game began, PBKS had instant success as Rohit Sharma, dropped on four in the second over, pulled to deep square leg off Marcus Stoinis.

After that, Varma and Jonny Bairstow brought out big shots from the word go. While Varma smacked Stoinis for a powerful six over long-on fence, Bairstow – despite being outwitted by slower balls at times - got two fours off Arshdeep, including off a top-edge, before taking a boundary and six off Azmatullah Omarzai, as MI ended power-play at 65/1.

Bairstow’s troubles against slower balls continued in front of Vyshak Vijaykumar, who troubled him with it and eventually had him caught behind off an attempted scoop through a knuckle ball in the eighth over. Varma, though, ran after Vyshak – dispatching him down the ground for four, before lofting elegantly over long-off for six.

Suryakumar, who struggled to time his scoops well, found his range by taking two sixes and a four off a returning Yuzvendra Chahal’s second and third overs – the maximums coming off a sweep and loft down the ground, while the boundary came off a cut through backward point for four.

After reaching out to slash and pull off Jamieson for two fours and go past 700 runs in this season, Suryakumar lofted Chahal for a four and six each, before the leg-spinner had the last laugh as the batter top-edged a sweep to deep mid-wicket. One brought two for PBKS as Varma mistimed his loft to mid-on off Jamieson, as MI lost both of their set batters in just three balls.

Dhir began adding some impetus into the back-end of MI’s innings by taking three fours off Arshdeep, including one coming off the top-edge, in the 17th over. He and Hardik Pandya took a four each off Omarzai, before the latter top-edged a pull to keeper on the last ball of the 18th over.

With Arshdeep missing his lengths and PBKS forced to put only four fielders on the boundary ropes in last two overs due to over-rate penalty, Dhir nailed his pull and loft to pick two fours, before heaving Omarzai for another boundary.

Though Dhir later hit straight to extra cover off Omarzai, MI managed to cross the 200-run mark - something which was a great psychological advantage in a knockout game. But Iyer’s blistering knock ensured PBKS put it aside and now have a shot at winning their first IPL title.

Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 203/6 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 44, Tilak Varma 44; Azmatullah Omarzai 2-43, Marcus Stoinis 1-14) lost to Punjab Kings 207/5 in 19 overs (Shreyas Iyer 87 not out, Nehal Wadhera 48; Ashwani Kumar 2-55, Hardik Pandya 1-19) by five wickets

(IANS)

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