IPL 2025: Punjab Kings’ Low score or KKR’s Poor Chase: What was worse?
The IPL 2025 match number 31 was hosted by Punjab Kings at the Mullanpur Stadium in New Chandigarh, and the visitors were the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders.
This match can easily be termed as a forgettable, yet a nail-biting thrilling experience for both sides. It also seemed more like a clash between the current skipper of PBKS, Shreyas Iyer and his former team, KKR that did not retain him ahead of the mega auction but instead chose to keep Venkatesh Iyer instead.
The match that was supposed to a rather low-key one, went into full throttle mode as soon as the innings started, leading to a result nobody expected.
Punjab Kings did the unthinkable. It looked like they were down and out when they were all out for 111 batting first. Then it looked like a lost cause when Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi calmed things down in the chase, after losing their openers early.
However, Yuzvendra Chahal’s mind-boggling spell, which had four wickets being picked in his first three overs of the KKR batting powered an incredible fightback from PBKS. Andre Russell kept KKR in the chase, but it all ended with him falling short to Marco Jansen. The men in purple lost five wickets in five overs, with Chahal powering the incredible fightback for the Punjab Kings and all of a sudden, the defending champions fell behind despite chasing just 112.
The Shreyas Iyer led red army planned a historic upset, defending the lowest-ever IPL total of 111 runs, against three-time winners KKR. They were cruising at 71 for 3 at one stage and suddenly suffered a shocking blow, losing seven wickets back-to-back for just 24 runs and being all out for mere 95 runs.
The modestly low total of 111 saw a dramatic collapse from the Punjab side, with Maxwell’s poor form still continuing endlessly. Just when everyone thought KKR’s bowling department had done the wonders and restricted the hosts comfortably for their batters to come and chase the target, they decided to bat even more poorly.
It almost looked as if Rahane and his men had decided to hand over the victory to the opposition without even fighting it out, except Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s respite knock of 37 runs.
The unanticipated win by PBKS and their successful attempt to defend one of the lowest totals this season, demonstrated the unpredictable nature of T20 cricket and made way for a thumping 16 run victory by the hosts. With this weak performance, the Knight Riders really have major homework to do and bounce back higher to win their remaining games, or else the chances of qualifying into the playoffs will definitely slip away soon.
KKR shouldn’t have let Shreyas Iyer be picked by a competing team specially after being an IPL winning captain, as he is probably in the best form of his life currently, displaying top notch captaincy skills in every outing of the IPL 2025.
