PBKS Vs MI Highlights, IPL 2025 Qualifier 2: Shreyas Iyer Masterclass Powers Punjab Kings Into Final

Hello and a warm welcome to everyone joining us for some high-octane cricket action, this Sunday evening. Two teams with contrasting routes to the playoffs are set to lock horns in Qualifier 2 and we can't wait for the first ball to be bowled. Watch this space for the build-up and live updates from the PBKS vs MI clash in Ahmedabad.

The match begins at 7:30pm IST. The Indian Premier League 2025 Qualifier 2 clash between Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians will be telecast on the Star Sports Network TV channels in India. It will be live streamed on the JioHotstar app and website in the country.

Like every crucial cricket match, the outcome of this game will also be decided by certain duels between players. Be it Suryakumar Yadav vs Arshdeep Singh or Jasprit Bumrah vs Marcus Stoinis, these key battles will be intriguing in the Punjab Kings vs Mumbai Indians encounter.

This is not the first meeting of PBKS and MI this season. The two teams had faced off less than a week back in Jaipur in another high-stakes clash. PBKS were up against MI last Tuesday with the winner of the match getting an assured top two finish.

A Yuzvendra Chahal-less PBKS won the toss and Shreyas Iyer chose to bowl first. MI scored 184 for seven batting first. Suryakumar Yadav top-scored for MI with 57 off 39 balls while there were two wickets apiece for Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh and Vijaykumar Vyshak.

Priyansh Arya (62 off 35 balls) and Josh Inglis (73 off 42) struck sparkling half-centuries to lead Punjab Kings' chase which was completed with nine balls to spare. This thumping win helped the Iyer-led side to finish top of the table for the first time since 2014.

Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer has won the toss and elected to bowl first against Mumbai Indians. Yuzvendra Chahal comes into the PBKS side for this all-important clash. The playing XIs and impact substitute list coming right up.

Punjab Kings: Priyansh Arya, Josh Inglis (wk), Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Kyle Jamieson, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh

PBKS Impact Substitute List: Prabhsimran Singh, Xavier Bartlett, Harpreet Brar, Suryansh Shedge, Pravin Dubey

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (c), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Raj Bawa, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Reece Topley

MI Impact Substitute List: Ashwani Kumar, KL Shrijith, Raghu Sharma, Robin Minz, Bevon Jacobs

Shreyas Iyer: "It's slightly overcast, the wicket was also covered yesterday. That's why we'll bowl. It's a fresh day, we've recovered well, rejuvenated. The boys are in high spirits, it's important to be assertive when you step onto the field. Dressing-room environment has been top-notch. Yuzi (Yuzvendra Chahal) comes in."

Hardik Pandya: "We'd have fielded. Looks like a decent track, just need to bat well and assess conditions early. The pitch has gotten much flatter, ball does less now. But still a good wicket for overall cricket. A lot of areas we could've gotten better in the last game that we identified. One-day break is both tough but also keeps us in rhythm. We came early morning after the last game. Most boys focused on recovery, intensity will be important."

Minutes before the first ball was to be bowled, it has begun drizzling at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad and the covers have been brought. It's windy out there and it could just be a passing shower. We'll get to know more soon.

And there's good news right away as the drizzling stops and the covers are being removed. In case rain does play a big part, an extra 120 minutes (two hours) have been allotted for the completion of the game. If delays persist, overs will be reduced to a minimum five-over contest, with a cut-off time of 11:56 PM IST.

Unlike last year, IPL 2025 has no provisions for a reserve day for the Qualifier 2 match; only the final match has such a facility. So, in the unlikely event of the Punjab-Mumbai match being abandoned due to a wet outfield or rainfall, the match will not be replayed.

Instead, PBKS, who topped the group stage with 19 points, will go through due to being the higher-ranked team, while fourth-placed Mumbai Indians will be eliminated.

And just as the umpires and players began to enter the ground, the rain returns and is much heavier than the drizzle earlier. The covers immediately come on and players go off. The umbrellas are out, which shows the quantum of showers.

While it is bucketing down at the Narendra Modi Stadium right now, the weather forecast is a bit more encouraging. Warm conditions were projected for the day with temperatures soaring up to 36°C during the day and dipping to around 27°C later. Humidity levels are estimated to peak at 64%. The probability of rain is 24% in the evening, so let's see how this pans out.

Good news. The rain seems to have stopped or gone very light at the stadium, which is why the Punjab Kings bowlers have stepped in and begun warming up in anticipation. The main covers, too, are coming off now. Play could resume in 20 minutes or so if there's no more rain. We'll bring you the official confirmation as soon as we have one.

More good news as the ground inspection goes well and the umpires are satisfied with the playing conditions. Since we have a two-hour overall cushion, overs are not reduced and play will begin at 8:25pm IST.

That oh-so-frustrating phenomenon of cricket games is in play again. Rain playing hide and seek to annoy players, viewers, umpires and ground officials alike. We were minutes away from the rescheduled start of 8:25pm when it began pouring again, and the covers return. And so we wait again.

When will we start losing overs in the match? The answer is 9:30pm. So still almost an hour for that to happen. The final cut-off time for a five-over match to be played, remember, is 11:56pm IST.

The umpires return to have a look at the square. The ground staff appear to move the edges of the covers, but in fact it is to adjust, not to remove them. The drizzle gets heavier and spectators are running for cover now.

While we wait for the rain to abate, let us take a look at Punjab seamer Arshdeep Singh's reflections on his most cherished Indian Premier League memory. The left-arm quick singled out a performance against MI at the Wankhede a few seasons ago as the standout moment of his IPL career.

Arshdeep told Star Sports, "...the best match, what I feel, was against Mumbai Indians in Wankhede. MI were chasing some 220-odd runs, and I finished with four wickets, and we won the game. So, it's very close to my heart."

Hope springs again as the rain stops and the covers are peeled off. Punjab Kings players have started to warm up again. We await a fresh update on (provisional) resumption of play, as the umpires walk out to inspect the conditions again.

Right, we have another rescheduled start. Play will begin at 9:45pm, and no overs have been lost as yet. The first innings is slated from 9:45pm to 11:15pm, and the second one from 11:25 to 12:55pm.

We finally have the first ball at 9:45pm, a good 135 minutes after it was supposed to be bowled. Rohit Sharma faces up to PBKS new-ball bowler Arshdeep Singh and watchfully defends the opening delivery, before tapping the second one for a single. Jonny Bairstow at the crease alongside Rohit for MI.

Azmatullah Omarzai drops Rohit Sharma's miscued skier off Kyle Jamieson's bowling, but the veteran Mumbai opener fails to make the most of it. He lofts Marcus Stoinis straight to Vyshak in the next over and departs for a seven-ball 8. Tilak Varma then comes in and smacks one straight down the ground for a glorious six, and it's a no-ball on top of that. 15 off the third over.

MI: 30/1 (3)

Jonny Bairstow takes charge after Rohit Sharma's dismissal. He brings up a 50-run partnership with Tilak Varma off 27 balls but while trying to up the ante, perishes. The English wicketkeeper-batter departs for 38 off 24 balls as Vijaykumar Vyshak's change of pace works.

MI: 70/2 (7 overs)

In some tragic sports news from Nigeria, a bus veered off a bridge in the country's northern state of Kano, killing at least 22 athletes returning home from a sports festival and leaving several other passengers injured, the state's governor said. The cause of the accident, which happened on Saturday, was not immediately known. The athletes had taken part in the Nigerian National Sports Festival in the southern state of Ogun over the last week.

Suryakumar Yadav has shattered AB de Villiers' record of most runs scored by a non-opening batter in an IPL season. De Villiers had scored 687 runs in 16 innings in IPL 2016 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and SKY has gone past that mark today.

Further, the swashbuckling batter has again scored more than 25 runs, making it his 16th consecutive innings with a 25+ score.

Punjab send back Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma in the space of three balls to claw their way back. Both set batters are dismissed for 44 runs and captain Hardik Pandya is joined by Naman Dhir in the middle. MI's run rate is still around 10, so they would be backing themselves to take the total beyond 200.

MI: 145/4 (14.4 overs)

Naman Dhir and Hardik Pandya haven't taken long to get going. The duo has clattered 28 runs off 17 balls to keep MI on course for a 200-plus total. Three overs to go, 30 runs to get to the psychologically relevant mark of 200. Let's see if PBKS can restrict Pandya and Co below that.

MI: 170/4 (17 overs)

Mumbai Indians lose Hardik Pandya in the 18th over, but Naman Dhir does immensely well to sustain the batting momentum, smashing 37 off 18 balls. MI finish with a 203-run total, which is perhaps par on this flat deck but a challenging one considering the enormity of the occasion and their superlative bowling attack (bearing a certain Jasprit Bumrah).

MI: 203/6 (20 overs)

Impact substitute Prabhsimran Singh walks out to open for Punjab Kings alongside Priyansh Arya. Trent Boult sends down the first over, conceding just six runs off it. Reece Topley starts well too but concedes a boundary off his last ball but Mumbai wouldn't mind giving away anything under 8 RPO in the powerplay, with Bumrah in their ranks.

PBKS: 13/0 (2 overs)

Josh Inglis takes Jasprit Bumrah for 20 runs in the latter's first over. It is Bumrah's most expensive over of this season and Punjab appear to be surging ahead. But Priyansh Arya falls to Ashwani Kumar soon after and Mumbai snare their second wicket. 64 runs off the powerplay and captain Shreyas Iyer now joins Inglis.

PBKS: 70/2 (7 overs)

Nehal Wadhera is going hammer and tongs at the Mumbai bowling. He gets the rub of the green with the usually reliable Trent Boult dropping him at deep fine leg. Shreyas Iyer holding fort at the other end as Punjab stay abreast with the asking rate. The match building up nicely for a tense finish.

PBKS: 101/3 (10.3 overs)

Shreyas Iyer is pacing his innings beautifully. He began prudently and has now stepped up the tempo, smashing Reece Topley for three straight sixes to make his intentions clear. Nehal Wadhera has joined the party from the other end, and Punjab are now getting into a good position to chase this target down.

PBKS: 142/3 (14 overs)

The Shreyas Iyer masterclass continues. Nehal Wadhera falls and Shashank Singh is run out at the other end, but the Punjab Kings skipper goes on unfettered and calmly. Marcus Stoinis now joins him. Can the senior pros finish the job for the league toppers?

PBKS: 173/5 (17 overs)

What an absolute blinder from Shreyas Iyer (87 not out off 41 balls; 5x4, 8x6). The Punjab Kings leader has played an innings for the ages, almost single-handedly steering his team into the final. With 23 needed off 12 balls, Iyer clobbers Ashwani Kumar for four sixes to take Punjab home in the 19th over itself.

The Kings thus march into the final for the first time in 11 years. They will face Royal Challengers Bengaluru there, meaning we will have a first-time winner this season.

PBKS: 207/5 (19 overs) beat Mumbai Indians (203/6) by five wickets

Here's what Player of the Match and winning captain Shreyas Iyer had to say after driving Punjab Kings to a five-wicket win:

"(On staying calm through his knock) I love such big occasions and I always say to myself and my colleagues that the bigger the occasion, the calmer you are and you'll get the right results. Today I was focusing a lot on my breathing. (On their plan for the chase) All players need to be assertive and show the intent from ball one. They weren't able to capitalise on their starts but the intent was stupendous. I also went out there and needed to get set.

"(On recovering from the RCB loss) Just throw the imagination and 'recovery' out in the bin. One match cannot define us as a team. (On uncapped players doing well) I just let them be. I don't ask too much of them. I love the fearlessness they bring to the table and the ideas they share. Even if they haven't got that much experience I feel they have that brave nature and in such big occasions, it's important they need to gain more experience.

"(On being with PBKS) I am very comfortable around the management and everyone around me and the environment is very positive. I am just staying in the moment, cherish the situation, go to the dressing room and celebrate with teammates getting into the final. But in my mind the job was only half-done so I don't want to think too much about the final. Just go recover, get a massage and get ready for the game."

Tonight's result means Shreyas Iyer has now led three different franchises to Indian Premier League finals: Delhi Capitals in 2020, Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024 and Punjab Kings 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. Will the Mumbaikar also shepherd Punjab to their maiden title?

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 as a Shreyas Iyer-powered Punjab Kings defeated the five-time champions by five wickets to storm into the IPL 2025 final.