Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer played a magnificent unbeaten knock of 87 runs from 41 deliveries against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the second qualifier of IPL 2025 at the Narendra Modi stadium on Sunday. The inning proved to be crucial as PBKS ended up winning the match by five wickets and booked their place in the IPL 2025 final.
The Punjab-based franchise will now be facing-off against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the final on June 3. The final will be contested at the same venue as the second qualifier.
PBKS last played in an IPL final in 2014
This will be PBKS' first IPL final in 11 years. They last made the final in the year 2014, but ended up losing to the Kolkata Knight Riders. Both PBKS and RCB are yet to record their first IPL triumphs, so it is guaranteed that a new winner will be crownned. The league has so far been won by seven different teams.
Following PBKS' emphatic victory over MI, former India cricketer Robin Uthappa went on to make a massive claim. He said that Iyer will go on to captain India in multiple formats in the future.
"I’ve said this time and again and I’ll say it AGAIN!! Iyer will captain India in multiple formats!! He has to!! He’s that good!!" Uthappa said in a social media post.
Iyer's captaincy during the clash against MI was highly praised by PBKS bowling coach James Hopes, who claimed that the Mumbai-based franchise would have gone on to post a total of 220 or 230 if it wasn't for Iyer's exceptional leadership skills.
"He's calm, doesn't get flustered very easily and he knows his matchups. He knows what he has to do at certain times and he's prepared to take that. When he was a younger player in Delhi (Capitals), he was a little bit more explosive and gung-ho, but he scores at a high strike right now strictly because he knows when a bowler comes on, that's his matchup and he's going to take it (on). With his captaincy, tonight, we kept them to 200 (203/6), but I reckon they could have got 220 or 230 and just because the way he pulls the strings out there and manoeuvred (the) bowlers around,” Hopes said after the match.
This will be the third time that Iyer will be leading a side in the IPL final. He previously captained the Delhi Capitals in the 2020 final against Mumbai Indians where his side ended up on the losing side. However, there was a change in his fortune when he captained the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2024 final against Sunrisers Hyderabad. The Kolkata-based franchise ended up lifting their third IPL title with a dominant performance in the penultime match of the season.