Punjab Kings came up with a fine all-round performance to recover from the defeat in their previous match and defeat Mumbai Indians by seven wickets in their last league match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Monday.
After winning the toss, Punjab Kings came up with a fine bowling performance boosted by Arshdeep Singh (2-28), Marco Jansen (2-34), and Vijaykumar Vyshak (2-44) to restrict Mumbai Indians to 184/7 despite a superb batting by Suryakumar Yadav, who struck a 39-ball 57.
Chasing 185, PBKS lost an early wicket as Prabhsimran Singh got out for 13, but a 109-run partnership between Priyansh Arya (62) and Josh Inglis (73) put them on course for victory and helped them take the top spot in the points table with 19 points, surging ahead of Gujarat Titans (18).
Skipper Shreyas Iyer, who scored 26 not out, said every player contributed towards the victory, taking the Punjab franchise, which has been part of the IPL from its inception to the top of the points table. PBKS had the opportunity to charge ahead in the standings but lost to Delhi Capitals.
Gujarat Titans' defeat to Chennai Super Kings opened up another chance for them, and this time they did not make any mistake and ensured that they finished in the top two positions, even if Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Lucknow Super Giants in the last league match on Tuesday.
Every individual stepped up at the right time. Starting from game one, we've been in the mindset of wanting to win despite the situation. We've had players putting their hands up when we were in the dumps. Kudos to the support staff and management, too. Ricky (Ponting, head coach) has been fantastic with player management, it's important for me to get trust too. That happened with the wins early on. Had conversations with them too. You have to maintain good relationships throughout. I feel the dressing room has been top-notch throughout.
Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya said they fell 20 runs short and did not play good cricket on Monday night. He said his message to his players would be to learn from this match.
The way the wicket played, we were 20 runs short. Happens. We've been playing good cricket, but didn't tonight, which cost us. We've won five trophies, it's always been tough. If you take your foot off the accelerator, other teams take over. The message would be simple: this is a small blip, learn from it and look forward to the knockout. It's still fresh, will identify issues later. Our batting needed to capitalise to get 20 more though.
The result ensured that PBKS will play in Qualifier 1 while MI will play the Eliminator. Their opponents will be decided after Tuesday's clash between RCB and LSG.
Brief Score: Mumbai Indians 184/7 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 57, Ryan Rickelton 27; Arshdeep Singh 2-28, Marco Jansen 2-34) lost to Punjab Kings 187/3 in 18.3 overs ( Josh Inglis 73, Priyansh Arya (62); Mitchel Santner 2-41, Jasprit Bumrah 1-23 ) by seven wickets.
