IPL 2025: PBKS beat GT after defending record total
25 Mar 2025

Punjab Kings (PBKS) beat Gujarat Titans in Match 5 of IPL 2025 at the Narendra Modi Stadium.

The visitors successfully defended 243/5, now their highest first-innings total in IPL history. Their defense defied substantial knocks from Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler, and Sherfane Rutherford.

GT's Sai Kishore took three wickets, while Shreyas Iyer, Shashank Singh, and Priyansh Arya shone for PBKS.

Iyer, Shashank power PBKS at the death
PBKS innings

Priyansh Arya came out all guns blazing after GT elected to field. Despite losing his opening partner early, he slammed a 23-ball 47.

PBKS skipper Iyer led from the front thereafter. However, PBKS lost quick wickets in the form of Omarzai Azmatullah and Glenn Maxwell.

Shashank Singh's 16-ball 40*, which included a final over blitz, led PBKS to 243/5. Iyer (97*) missed his ton.

How GT's chase panned out
GT innings

Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan also took off for the Titans. They took GT past 60 before Maxwell dismissed Gill.

Sudharsan, who struggled initially, stepped up and added 84 runs along with Buttler.

Arshdeep Singh ended Sudharsan's blinder, but Buttler carried on. Sherfane Rutherford's bid to accelerate was stopped by yorkers from Vijaykumar Vyshak.

Although Rahul Tewatia stepped up, GT were restricted to 232/5.

PBKS's highest first-innings total in IPL
Fact

PBKS earlier recorded their highest first-innings total in IPL history. According to Cricbuzz, PBKS's 243/5 is also the highest IPL total against GT. They went past Delhi Capitals's 224/4 in Delhi last year.

Sudharsan shines with impactful knock
Sai Sudharsan

Sai Sudharsan was the star of GT's run-chase, albeit in a losing cause.

He played second fiddle in his 61-run stand with Gill before breaking the shackles.

Sudharsan launched his counter-attack along with Buttler in the middle overs. In an attempt to go all out, he was outfoxed by Arshdeep in the 13th over.

Sudharsan slammed a 41-ball 74 (5 fours and 6 sixes).

Sudharsan races past 1,100 IPL runs
Fact

With his latest knock, Sudharsan raced past 1,100 runs in the IPL. He already has seven half-centuries and a ton in his 26-match IPL career. Sudharsan now has 1,108 runs at a strike-rate of 141.32.

Iyer leads from the front
Iyer

Shreyas Iyer earlier led PBKS from the front. The senior batter justified his ₹26.75 crore price tag by playing a whirlwind knock on PBKS debut.

Iyer, along with Shashank Singh, propelled the Kings past 240. He was stranded on 97* as Shashank hammered 5 fours in the final over.

Iyer raced to his 22nd half-century in the IPL.

Iyer's highest score in IPL
Milestone

Iyer's 97* is now highest score in the IPL. His previous-highest score was 96 that came for Delhi Capitals against Gujarat Lions in 2017.

In a career spanning a decade, Iyer has racked up 3,224 runs from 117 IPL matches at an average of 33.24.

Iyer's best season came in 2020 when he scored 519 runs at 34.60.

Highest IPL score on captaincy debut for a franchise
Fact

As per Cricbuzz, Iyer now has the highest score on captaincy debut for a franchise in the IPL. He is only behind Sanju Samson (119 for RR vs PBKS, Wankhede, 2021) and Mayank Agarwal (99* for PBKS vs DC, Ahmedabad, 2021).

Iyer gets past 6,000 T20 runs
Milestone

During the innings, Iyer also completed 6,000 runs in T20 cricket. He reached the landmark with his 26th in the match.

Over 3,200 of his T20 runs have come in the IPL. Meanwhile, the star batter has scored 1,104 runs from 51 T20Is for Team India.

Notably, Iyer holds the record for the second-highest score by an Indian batter in T20 cricket.

Maxwell records his 19th duck
Maxwell

Maxwell, who returned to the PBKS camp, recorded a golden duck. Batting at number five, the Aussie batter was trapped in front by GT's Sai Kishore.

Maxwell has now tallied the most ducks in IPL history (19), as per Cricbuzz. He broke a tie with Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik (18 each).

Piyush Chawla and Sunil Narine follow the duo with 16 ducks each.

Phenomenal spell from Sai Kishore
Sai Kishore

Sai Kishore bowled a phenomenal spell when the Kings were cruising. He dismissed Omarzai and Maxwell on consecutive deliveries to pull some momentum back.

Sai Kishore then stopped the dangerous Marcus Stoinis from going berserk.

The GT spinner finished with an economy rate of 7.50 (3/30).

The Indian bowler has now raced to 16 wickets from just 11 IPL games at 18.00.

Buttler kept GT in the hunt
Buttler

Buttler chipped in with an 84-run stand with Sudharsan. The duo took the Titans past 140 in less than 13 overs.

The former was later joined by Rutherford, who played too many dot balls despite a positive start.

As a result, the dangerous Buttler was knocked over by Marco Jansen. He scored a 33-ball 54 (4 fours and 2 sixes).

Buttler shines on debut for GT
Form

Buttler, who was once Rajasthan Royals's mainstay batter, made his debut for GT tonight.

He slammed his first half-century since relinquishing England's white-ball captaincy.

Overall, Buttler has raced to 3,636 runs from 108 IPL encounters at an average of 38.27. This was his 20th fifty in the tournament.

Buttler also has seven IPL tons to his name.

Rashid becomes third-fastest to 150 IPL wickets
Rashid

Despite taking a wicket, star GT spinner Rashid Khan leaked way too many runs (48 in four overs).

With his only wicket, he became the third-fastest player to complete 150 wickets in the IPL.

Rashid took 122 games to touch the 150-wicket landmark (4W: 2). While Yuzvendra Chahal attained the feat in 118 matches, Lasith Malinga (105 matches) reached the milestone quicker.

Gill completes 4,500 T20 runs
Fact

GT skipper Shubman Gill departed after scoring a 14-ball 33 in the Powerplay (2 fours and 3 sixes). With this, he completed 4,500 runs in T20 cricket. He unlocked the achievement in his 146th encounter.