Punjab Kings in the IPL Final: With the help of Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy innings, Punjab Kings defeated Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets in Qualifier 2 of IPL 2025 and made it to the final. Punjab has reached the final of the league for the second time in 18 years and for the first time since 2014. At the same time, Mumbai Indians have lost a match after scoring 200 for the first time. Punjab Kings will face Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final. Neither of the two teams has won the final till date and this time someone’s title drought is expected to end.
Chasing the target of 204 runs, Punjab did not have a good start and the team lost Prabhsimran Singh’s score early. But after this Josh English hit 20 runs in Bumrah’s over and expressed his intentions. However, after this Ashwin dismissed Priyansh and Hardik dismissed Josh English. But then Shreyas Iyer and Nehra Vadhera laid the base for victory by sharing 84 runs for the fourth wicket. Vadhera was dismissed after scoring 48 runs, but Iyer stood till the end and returned with victory for the team. Iyer played an unbeaten innings of 87 runs in 41 balls.
Earlier, in the Qualifier 2, Mumbai Indians scored 203 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. MI, who came to bat first after losing the toss, lost the wicket of Rohit Sharma early, but after that Tilak Verma and Jonny Bairstow shared a 51-run partnership for the second wicket. Bairstow was dismissed after scoring 38 runs. Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Verma, who came to the crease after him, shared a 71-run partnership for the fourth wicket. In the end, Naman Dheer played an innings of 37 runs in 18 balls to take the team’s score beyond 200.
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Punjab Kings Entered the Final of IPL 2025
Punjab Kings (PBKS) have entered the final for the first time since 2014. Now they will face Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on June 3 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. RCB made it to the final by defeating Punjab in the Qualifier 1 match. While, the journey of five-time champion Mumbai ended in Qualifier 2. The team defeated Gujarat in the Eliminator, but the Hardik Pandya-led team could not cross the hurdle of Qualifier 2. Punjab and Bengaluru have never won the IPL trophy so far, so it is certain that now the tournament will get a new champion. With this, it was also decided that the IPL will get a new champion this season.
Playing 11 of Mumbai and Punjab in the Qualifier 2
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Johnny Bairstow(wicketkeeper), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Naman Dheer, Hardik Pandya (captain), Raj Bawa, Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Jaspreet Bumrah, Reece Topley
Punjab Kings: Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Josh Inglis (wicketkeeper), Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Vijaykumar Vaishak, Kyle Jamieson, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
First Captain to take Three Teams to the Finals
Shreyas Iyer achieved a milestone that no other captain has been able to achieve till now. He became the first captain in the world to take three different IPL teams (Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings) to the finals. His record has been excellent. He took Delhi Capitals to the playoffs in 2019, took Delhi Capitals to the finals in 2020. After this, in 2022, Kolkata Knight Riders were placed at the 7th position and in 2024, KKR was made the champion. Now in 2025, Punjab Kings have been given a place in the finals after 11 years.
Most Sixes in a Season for Punjab Kings
In Qualifier 2, Shreyas Iyer first shared an 84-run partnership with Nehal Wadhera (48 runs) and then added 38 runs with Marcus Stoinis (2 runs), which helped Punjab Kings to stay in the chase till the end. Shreyas Iyer’s bat is not stopping this season. He has hit 38 sixes so far in IPL 2025, which is the highest in a season in the history of Punjab Kings. Earlier, Glenn Maxwell had hit 36 sixes in 2014.
- Shreyas Iyer (2025) – 38*
- Glenn Maxwell (2014) – 36
- Chris Gayle (2019) – 34
- Liam Livingstone (2022) – 34
- KL Rahul (2018) – 32
Shreyas Iyer Joins the List of Captains to Play back-to-back Finals
Shreyas Iyer has now become the fourth captain to play back-to-back IPL finals. Before him, only MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya have been able to do this feat. But Shreyas is the first captain to play two consecutive finals with two different teams. Before him, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya have played two consecutive finals, but with same team. Captain Cool MS Dhoni has played four consecutive IPL finals.
- MS Dhoni – Chennai Super Kings (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013) and (2018, 2019)
- Rohit Sharma – Mumbai Indians (2019, 2020)
- Hardik Pandya – Gujarat Titans (2022, 2023)
- Shreyas Iyer – Kolkata Knight Riders (2024) and Punjab Kings (2025)
Now PBKS will Face RCB in IPL 2025 Final
Punjab Kings will now take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Final to be held at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on June 3. So far in IPL 2025, there have been 3 matches between the two teams, in which PBKS has won one, while RCB has won two. After losing to RCB in Qualifier 1, Iyer had said that they have lost the battle, not the war. Now after one day they will be facing the same team again, so it will be interesting to see what revenge they will be able to take in this match.