Shreyas Iyer's unbeaten 87 off 41 balls helped Punjab Kings chase down Mumbai Indians' 204-run target in 19 overs. PBKS will meet Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final, meaning we will have a first-time winner in IPL 2025
Prior to this match, Mumbai Indians had never failed to defend a 200-plus total in an Indian Premier League game. Prior to this match, Jasprit Bumrah had not conceded more than 18 runs in an over this season. Both feats were waylaid at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday (June 1) as a Shreyas Iyer-powered Punjab Kings defeated the five-time champions by five wickets to storm into the IPL 2025 final.
Iyer played a knock for the ages, pacing it masterfully to change gears just when needed and end in a crescendo to finish unbeaten on 87 off 41 balls. Four of his eight sixes came in the 19th over, where he dismissed Ashwani Kumar from his presence to rattle off the 23 runs needed with a full over to spare.
The 30-year-old thus steered Punjab into the IPL final for the first time in 11 years. The league-phase leaders will face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the summit clash, meaning we will have a first-time winner this season.
Iyer has now led three different franchises to IPL finals: Delhi Capitals in 2020, Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024 and PBKS in 2025. No other player has achieved the feat with more than one team.
Meanwhile, the final between PBKS and RCB pits Iyer against Rajat Patidar. This is the same pairing of skippers as in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025 final (Madhya Pradesh vs Mumbai). The Iyer-led Mumbai had prevailed in that game. It remains to be seen who comes up trumps this time around.
Earlier, MI put 203 runs on the board for the loss of six wickets. Tilak Varma and Suryakumar Yadav hit 44 apiece, while Naman Dhir teed off with an 18-ball 37 towards the end.
The total should have been a challenging one, at least on paper, given the enormity of the situation and the strength in Mumbai's bowling arsenal. But with Bumrah going for 20 runs off his very first over 바카라” Josh Inglis taking him to the cleaners in the powerplay 바카라” Hardik Pandya didn't have anyone to fall back on. Iyer then stepped in and conjured a vice-like grip on the chase and the match.
Punjab Kings won the toss and opted to field first in Ahmedabad.
Punjab Kings: Priyansh Arya, Josh Inglis (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Shashank Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Kyle Jamieson, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Mumbai Indians: 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
The IPL 2025 final will be played at the same venue on Tuesday (June 3). Should rain play spoilsport, like it did initially in Qualifier 2, there is the provision of a reserve day to decide the winner.