Shreyas Iyer's Punjab Kings were nowhere near their best as Royal Challengers Bengaluru hammered them by eight wickets on Thursday in a one-sided Qualifier 1 of Indian Premier League 2025. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli inched closer to a maiden title, despite failing with the bat yet again in the playoffs segment of the tournament.
After the bowlers bundled out Iyer and Co. for just 101, RCB booked their slot in Sunday's final in style -- chasing down the target with 10 overs and eight wickets to spare.
Kohli's opening partner Phil Salt watched from the non-striker's end as his captain Rajat Patidar hit the winning runs by blasting a maximum on the leg side. The Englishman remained unbeaten on 56, having laid the foundation stone for an easy run chase as he took the team past the halfway mark by the end of the batting powerplay. Salt took 23 balls to bring up his fifty, having smashed six fours and three sixes.
Kohli, who is RCB's highest run-getter of the season, could only make 12 off 12 before being dismissed by Kyle Jamieson.
It was Punjab Kings' ultra-aggressive approach that backfired on a tricky Mullanpur track as their innings folded up in just in 14.1 overs. The RCB pace trio of Josh Hazlewood (3/21), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/17) and Yash Dayal (2/26) exploited the conditions well before leg-spinner Suyash Sharma (3/17) made it worse for the opposition.
Punjab Kings' slide began when in-form opener Priyansh Arya was caught at cover off Dayal as he couldn't check his drive. His opening partner Prabhsimran Singh (18 off 10) followed him back into the dugout in the following over from Bhuvneshwar.
Having collected two straight boundaries on the charge, Prabhsimran stepped out for a third swipe but Bhuvneshwar pulled his length back to induced the edge. Captain Shreyas Iyer, who has been central to the team's success this season, went for a wild slog off Hazlewood on his third ball of the innings but was caught behind. The Australian pacer then sent back his country man Josh Inglis, off a rising ball that the latter could not control, creating a sense of panic in the dressing room. The batters continued to go for their shots to hasten Punjab Kings' slide. Against leggie Suyash, the likes of Marcus Stoinis (26 off 17) and Shashank Singh went for the slog sweep but could not connect with the googly. Musheer Khan, making an unexpected IPL debut as an impact player, too fell to a sweep off Suyash, who got his googly to turn sharply.
Azmatullah Omarzai chipped in with 18 runs. None of the other Punjab batters could go past the two-digit mark in the crucial game.