The Punjab Kings continued a strange trend of teams at the top of the IPL table losing to sides in the bottom half, as they slipped to a six-wicket defeat against the Delhi Capitals in their encounter at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Saturday night.
Leading up to this game, the Gujarat Titans went down to the Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru were beaten by Sunrisers Hyderabad, meaning the top three on the log have all lost just before the playoffs, leaving the top two spots on the log still up for grabs.
To finish in the top two means you get two bites at making it to the IPL final, as the winner of the first qualifier goes straight to the showpiece match, while the loser gets a another shot in the second qualifier.
In Saturday’s match the Capitals clinched a last-over win, thanks to a fantastic unbeaten 58 off 25 balls (3x4; 5x6) from Sameer Rizvi powering them home, after Mustafizur Rahman impressed with the ball picking up 3-33 in his four overs.
𝙍𝙞𝙯𝙯-𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧 🙇♂️
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 24, 2025
A high-quality innings to close it out in style ✌️@DelhiCapitals sign off from this season in a 𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 fashion 💙
Updates ▶ https://t.co/k6WP8zBwzL #TATAIPL | #PBKSvDC pic.twitter.com/3qgtrlWDDj
It was the Capitals that won the toss and chose to bowl first, but Punjab managed a solid 206-8 in their 20 overs, largely due to the efforts of Shreyas Iyer, 53 off 34 (5x4; 2x6), and a stunning late innings cameo from Marcus Stoinis, 44* off 16 (3x4; 4x6), to get them there.
But the Capitals were able to make it home with three balls to spare, thanks to Rizvi, Karun Nair, 44 off 27 (5x4; 2x6), and KL Rahul, 35 off 21 (6x4; 1x6), with them the key contributors in the second innings.
The Capitals' chase got off to a decent start as Rahul and captain Faf du Plessis, 23 off 15 (2x4; 1x6) combined for a 55-run opening stand in 5.3 overs.
But Punjab hit back as Marco Jansen had Rahul slicing the ball to Shashank Singh at mid-off in the final over of the powerplay and in the next Harpreet Brar had Du Plessis cutting straight to Priyansh Arya at backward point, as they slipped to 65-2.
That brought Sediqullah Atal, 22 off 16 (2x6), in to join Nair, and they added 28 to the score, but Atal lived and died by the sword, swinging at everything which saw him dropped twice, before he tried to slog sweep Praveen Dubey at the start of the 11th, only to top edge the ball to Arshdeep Singh at long on, leaving them on 93-3.
Rizvi was next man in and he proved to be the catalyst, batting through to take his team over the line.
For his maiden #TATAIPL 5️⃣0️⃣ and finishing act, Sameer Rizvi receives the Player of the Match award 👏👏
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 24, 2025
Relive his innings ▶ https://t.co/rPYjSTb5J0
#PBKSvDC pic.twitter.com/YRnE5iyjFD
It was first an important 62-run stand off 29 balls that he shared with Nair to keep them in the hunt, followed by him taking charge of an unbeaten 53-run partnership with Tristan Stubbs, 18* off 14 (2x4), who crucially stayed in as they cruised to the win comfortably in the end.
STOINIS PLAYS A LONE HAND
Earlier the Punjab innings got off to a mixed start, thanks to an early blitz from Josh Inglis, 32 off 12 (3x4; 2x6), as he tore into the bowling.
But Rahman had opener Arya (6) caught behind by keeper Stubbs, and Vipraj Nigam had Inglis stumped by Stubbs, leaving them on 60-2 after the powerplay.
That brought Iyer in and he proceeded to keep the scoreboard ticking, sharing in a number of quick partnerships.
He added 22 with opener Prabhsimran Singh, 28 off 18 (4x4; 1x6), 41 with Nahel Wadhera (16), and 26 with Shashank (11), but regular wickets meant they weren’t able to maximise, with the score 144-5 in the 16th over.
But that saw the arrival of Stoinis, and although Iyer was next to fall, just after reaching his fifty while helping 25 come off Mukesh Kumar in the 17th over, the Australian was able to play a lone hand down the back straight, hammering 22 off the 19th and 10 off the last to boost them over 200.
All the bowlers came in for a bit of tap, but Rahman was the pick of them, while Nigam, 2-38, and Kuldeep Yadav, 2-39, also chipped in among the wickets.
PUNJAB KINGS: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Josh Inglis (wk), Shreyas Iyer (capt), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Azmatullah Omarzai, Harpreet Brar, Arshdeep Singh
DELHI CAPITALS: Faf du Plessis (capt), Sediqullah Atal, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs (wk), Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Mustafizur Rahman, Mukesh Kumar