News India Live, Digital Desk: Punjab Kings defeated Mumbai Indians by five wickets to enter the final of IPL 2025, in which batsman Shreyas Iyer made headlines by scoring an unbeaten 87 off 41 balls. But it was the captain Iyer who took a team to the finals for the first time in 11 years.
Along with sending Ashwini Kumar to the stand to complete the target of 204 runs in Punjab, he became the first cricketer to reach three different teams to the IPL final.
Under his captaincy, Delhi Capitals reached the title round in 2020, Kolkata Knight Riders won under his leadership last year and in this edition Punjab is to face Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final match on 3 June.
The thing to make Iyer’s achievement even more impressive is that no other player has been able to do so for more than one team.
Punjab had the strongest purse in the mega auction for IPL 2025 in November last year, as he put full force for Iyer.
Punjab first appointed Ricky Ponting as head coach and was keen to re -work with Australian Iyer, working together while reaching the finals of Delhi in 2020.
He spent a huge amount of Rs 26.75 crore, making him the most expensive player in the history of the tournament. And not only scoring 558 runs in 16 matches, but Iyer has paid Punjab to his second final in 18 years.
But he will be the first to accept that the work is still half. With the RCB reaching the finals, a new champion is set to be found in this edition of IPL.
Iyer would like to achieve another achievement, as he is the only captain to win two teams in two consecutive versions. He hit five fours and eight sixes on Sunday and broke the dream of Mumbai Indians and will prepare himself to lead again in the final on Tuesday.
After Punjab’s victory over Mumbai, he said, “I don’t know honestly, I like such big opportunities. I always tell myself and in the team that the bigger opportunity you will, the more calm you will be, you will get big results.”
“Today was a perfect example, where I was focusing more on my breath instead of sweating. All the players should be firm and the first ball should show the intention. The intention was fantastic and for me, I had to take some time.
“The batsmen from the other end were strikes very well. I know the more time I spend on the field, the better I get better and my eyes also get better.”
The upliftment of Punjab under Iyer’s leadership is even more amazing, as it shows how wrong decisions KKR’s title was to not maintain the winning captain in the team.
Iyer had earlier said that he hoped that he would be retained in the team, but due to no concrete talks with KKR, he had to take different avenues. He said that he was disappointed to know about it only a week before the date of retaining the team.
KKR CEO Venky Mysore claimed that Iyer was the first name in his retention list and indicated his desire to test his market value in the auction, due to which he was not given retention.
In defense of his title, KKR failed to qualify for the play-off as he finished eighth in 14 matches with only five wins.
Punjab will be happy that things should not have been as it should have been, as they have definitely benefited at the cost of KKR.
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