On Sunday night at Qualifier 2 of IPL 2025, PBKS chased down 204 runs against MI, marking the highest-ever successful chase in an IPL playoff game. Under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer, PBKS truly showed up for the contest. MI set a stern target of 203/6, with Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, and Naman Dhir tremendously batting for their cause. However, PBKS were never behind and pulled off a splendid chase, being the first-ever team to successfully chase a target over 200 against MI.
While neither team has won an IPL trophy yet, they know how to keep the spectators cheering with their exciting style of play. This was the eighth time that PBKS chased a target over 200, which is still the most by a team in IPL history. This chase was special, but they will always remember the 262-run chase against KKR at Eden Gardens last year, Buoyed by Jonny Bairstow’s hundred and strong contributions from Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh-the highest in T20 history.
So far in this tournament, PBKS has scored more than 200 runs in an innings nine times, the most by any team in any T20. This chase is also the ninth instance of a 200-plus chase being successfully completed in IPL 2025, an all-time record in one tournament.
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PBKS won the toss and elected to bowl first. After the early loss of Rohit Sharma, MI somewhat got back on track with a 51-run partnership between Jonny Bairstow (38 off 24 balls) and Tilak Varma (44 off 29 balls). The momentum was further augmented courtesy of a 72-run stand between Tilak and Suryakumar Yadav (44 off 26 balls), before Naman Dhir’s quickfire 37 off 18 balls took MI to 203/6.
For PBKS, Azmatullah Omarzai was the stand-out bowler with 2/43, while Kyle Jamieson, Marcus Stoinis, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Vijaykumar Vyshak ended up with the remaining wickets.
PBKS faced a few bumps early on in their run-chase despite Josh Inglis (38 off 21 balls) getting off to a rapid start, hitting 20 runs in one over from Jasprit Bumrah. An 84-run partnership between Nehal Wadhera (48 off 29 balls) and Iyer meant the chase was on track. After the next quick wickets left PBKS 169/5, Iyer (87* off 41 balls) took charge and guided his team to a five-wicket victory with an over to spare.
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Ashwani Kumar is the leading bowler for MI with a haul of 2/55, while Trent Boult and Hardik Pandya grabbed one wicket each. Bumrah, meanwhile, gave away 40 runs in his 4 overs for no wickets. Iyer went away with the Player of the Match award for his key performance. The final between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore is slated for Tuesday at Ahmedabads Narendra Modi Stadium.
