Jaipur, May 27 (H.S.): Under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer, Punjab Kings registered a convincing victory against Mumbai Indians on Monday, ensuring their place in the top-2 of the IPL 2025 playoffs. In this crucial match played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, Punjab defeated Mumbai by 7 wickets to advance to the first qualifier.

After losing the toss and batting first, Mumbai Indians started quickly. Rohit Sharma (24 runs) and Ryan Rickelton (27 runs) scored runs during the powerplay but couldn’t play big innings. Following them, Suryakumar Yadav (57 runs) continued his excellent form to stabilize the team. Captain Hardik Pandya contributed 26 runs, and Naman Dheer added 20 runs. In the final over, Arshdeep Singh claimed 2 wickets while conceding just 3 runs, preventing Mumbai from reaching the 200-run mark. Mumbai set a score of 185/8 in their allotted 20 overs.

For Punjab, Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen, and Vijaykumar Vyshak each took two wickets, while one wicket went to Harpreet Brar.

Punjab started their chase of the 186-run target a bit slowly. Prabhsimran Singh (13 runs) got out cheaply, but then Priyansh Arya (62 runs) and Josh Inglis (73 runs) turned the match around. Both targeted Mumbai's dangerous bowlers and maintained a high run rate by playing big shots. Their partnership made the match one-sided. In the end, captain Shreyas Iyer guided the team to the target in a composed manner and finished the match with a winning six. Punjab achieved the target in just 19 overs.

For Mumbai, Mitchell Santner took two wickets and Jasprit Bumrah took one wicket.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar