On June 1, the Punjab Kings defeated the Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets and thus entered the finals of the 2025 Indian Premier League to face Royal Challengers Bengaluru yet again, in Ahmedabad. While chasing 204 runs against Mumbai, Shreyas Iyer, the Punjab captain, stole the major highlight. While he indeed deserves the praise for his unbeaten 87 runs, the other "warrior" from his team, Nehal Wadhera, deserves respect too for the cameo in the middle.

Nehal, despite a stormy innings, missed his half-century by a whisker and walked back after trying to hit against a wide yorker off Ashwini. However, after the win, coming to the post-match presentation, he revealed his game plan.

Notably, Nehal was earlier associated with the Mumbai Indians for the last two years. He had even played a few matches as the impact player for the team, and had earned praises from the team's former captain, Rohit Sharma, for his shot-hitting abilities. Thus, for Nehal, it wasn't unusual for him to know the team's nerves. Thus speaking to the presenter Ravi Shastri, Neal recalled his days with MI, and said,

"I just wait for such games and I couldn't be more eager to play such a knock in such a crucial match so it's really close to my heart. [On partnership with Iyer] The plan was pretty simple. I have been with MI for two years and played a lot with them so I knew what they would attack me with so I changed my batting. I am glad it worked out. If it was in my radar, I would just go with my shots. I wasn't trying to target a specific bowler but just trying to convert boundary balls."

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He also praised Shreyas Iyer, who held the nerve of the chase. Nehal added,

"Iyer is a chase master and he proved himself today as well. Lot of learnings from him and I hope we take the momentum forward and win the game against RCB now."

For Punjab, apart from Shreyas Iyer, has been one of the key scorers for Punjab. he scored 48 runs off just 29 balls, hitting 4 boundaries and two sixes. Earlier, the 36 runs from Jos Inglish were the ones that set the tone, before Nehal and Shreyas finished the chase for Punjab.