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Punjab Kings (PBKS) pulled off a heist against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in a thrilling Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 encounter on Tuesday, April 15 at the Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, Chandigarh. After electing to bat, PBKS were dismissed for a modest total of 111. However, a brilliant bowling performance, spearheaded by Yuzvendra Chahal's stunning spell of 4/28, triggered KKR's batting collapse, who lost six wickets for just 17 runs in a mere 31 deliveries and were eventually bowled out for 95.
Ricky Ponting in no mood to change Shreyas Iyer's batting order
Meanwhile, PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting, visibly displayed his elation during the post-match press conference following Punjab's nail-biting 16-run win over KKR. He also offered a playful and witty response to a reporter's suggestion of promoting Glenn Maxwell in the batting order and swapping his position with captain Shreyas Iyer.
"Yeah, we've got a guy called Shreyas Iyer at number 3. If I want to stay in my job, I'm probably not going to move the captain. So as we all know, the captain sets the batting order. He's pretty happy at number 3 and he's been outstanding in the tournament. So you know we're always trying to find the right time in the game," Ponting said in the post-match press conference.
Glenn Maxwell has experienced a difficult run in the current IPL season so far, scoring just 41 runs across six matches and also finding limited success with his off-spin bowling. In contrast, Shreyas Iyer has been a standout performer for PBKS in the same number of games, amassing 250 runs at an impressive strike rate of 204.91.Iyer's consistent performance places him at the fourth position in the current list of highest run-scorers in the tournament. Consequently, it is highly probable that he will soon be in contention for the coveted orange cap, awarded to the leading run-scorer of the edition.
"It's not about numbers that these guys bat. It's about the right time that you can inject them into the game. So we've got good flexibility with our batting order. We've moved a few guys around already this season. As things go on, and we come up with a more settled side, there probably won't be guys moving around too much," the PBKS coach added.
Notably, in the team selection for the match against KKR, Marcus Stoinis was surprisingly omitted from the playing XI, with Josh Inglis taking his place in the side. While Inglis' contribution with the bat was limited, scoring only 2 runs off 6 deliveries before being dismissed by Varun Chakaravarthy, he fulfilled his duties behind the wickets.
Addressing the exclusion of Stoinis, head coach Ricky Ponting explained that Inglis' reputation as a strong player against spin bowling was the deciding factor in his inclusion in the team ahead of Stoinis for this particular encounter.
"Yeah, a tough decision to leave Stoinis out, you know, we wanted to bring Inglis into the side. Inglis is a noted player of spin that didn't probably look that way tonight, but he is a very, very good player of spin. His keeping is as good as anyone's in the world as well, and we wanted the matchups with the ball with Marco. We wanted the matchups with the ball with Glenn Maxwell. So unfortunately, for Marcus Stoinis, it had to be him that missed out tonight, but then you go to a different venue, you know, in two days we're up in Bangalore against them up there. Who knows what combination we might come up with for that?," Ponting concluded.
Following their recent win over KKR, PBKS currently occupies the fourth position in the IPL 2025 points table, having notched four wins and suffered two defeats. Their next challenge will be against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Friday, April 18.
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