Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians contest the Qualifier 2 of the Indian Premier League 2025 in Ahmedabad tonight for a place in the final, where they will play the Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Tuesday (June 3). Here are the key narratives.
History beckons
Mumbai Indians have won five IPL titles, and all of them came whenever they finished in the top two positions in the league stage. They reached the playoffs on four other occasions by finishing third or fourth in the league stage. They failed to reach the final on all four occasions. Can they break the jinx and make it to their 7th IPL final? On the other hand, Punjab Kings would want to avoid joining one particular list. Delhi Capitals (2009, 2012, and 2021) and Gujarat Lions (2016) were the only two sides to not reach the final despite finishing first in the league stage.
Pitch in the spotlight
The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad hosted 5 night games in the league stage, and the toss-winning captain opted to bowl first on all five occasions. Guess what? The toss-winning team lost all five games. Mumbai Indians also have a terrible record in Ahmedabad.
Shreyas Iyer and Hardik Pandya did break away from the norm and opted to bat first this season. Hardik notably did that against Gujarat Titans in the eliminator on Friday. It shouldn’t be a surprise if Shreyas or Hardik opts to bowl first.
Key battles
The most decisive moment of Qualifier 1 and Eliminator involved a Mumbai hero. Shreyas Iyer’s dismissal off Josh Hazlewood decisively tilted the game in favour of Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Qualifier 1 match. Rohit Sharma offered two easy chances to the Gujarat Titans fielders in the eliminator on Friday. He was dropped on 3 and 12 and duly punished the Titans by registering his highest-ever score in IPL playoffs, a superb 81 off 50 balls.
Shreyas will be up against Jasprit Bumrah, the best bowler of the tournament. Rohit will be facing Arshdeep Singh, the leading wicket-taker for India in T20Is. Shreyas’ experience is vital for the inexperienced batters around him. Dismissing Rohit at the earliest will help Punjab Kings to manage the run rate and add pressure on Suryakumar Yadav.
Mr. Consistent and Mr. 360 holds the key
Audacious, flamboyant, and outrageous are some of the adjectives used to describe Suryakumar Yadav’s batting. The Indian T20 captain added a new word to the dictionary: consistency. 15 matches, 15 consecutive scores in excess of 25. Suryakumar Yadav will most certainly win the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award if he manages to hit five boundaries against Punjab Kings.
Return of Chahal and Chahar
Yuzvendra Chahal is expected to return to the PBKS side after missing the last three matches. Deepak Chahar missed the eliminator for MI, and he remains a doubtful starter for today’s game as well. Debutant Richard Gleeson left the field after bowling three balls in the final over of the GT innings in the eliminator. If neither of them is available, England’s Reece Topley might get the nod.
