IPL 2025: Shreyas misses ton, sets up PBKS’ 11-run win over Gujarat Titans
Punjab Kings skipper was 97* but at the non-striker’s end as 23 runs were plundered in the final over
Kolkata: How exacting can it be watching the ball and reacting to it? Ask Shashank Singh, so invested in the process that he couldn’t spare a ball for Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer to complete what would have been his first IPL hundred. Iyer was sold on the tradeoff though, because not often do so batters strike this cleanly in tandem.
Priyansh Arya marked his debut with a scintillating 23-ball 47 at the top, Iyer blazed 97* off 42 balls, but Shashank’s strike rate was a gobsmacking 275; 44 off 16 balls, 23 of them in the last over, in an eighth-wicket partnership of 81 in 26 balls—this was a hiding that spelt out the difference in an 11-run win against Gujarat Titans at Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
Critical was the 14th over from Vijaykumar Vyshak as well, conceding four singles and a wide when Titans needed 75 from 36 balls in their chase of 244. Laying the foundation for the chase with a 14-ball 33, Titans captain Shubman Gill was looking good for more till a leading edge off Glenn Maxwell—who logged a record 19th duck in IPL—put the onus on Sai Sudharsan.
He reacted well, hammering 74 off 41 but still not quickly enough for Titans to pace their chase properly. Jos Buttler’s issues with converting starts probably prompted Titans to send Sherfane Rutherford as Impact Sub and he got cracking immediately, muscling Marcus Stoinis for 17 runs in the 14th over. Marco Jansen followed up Vyshak’s gem with an eight-run over that pushed the asking rate to 15.5 runs. In came Vyshak again, spraying the ball a bit but still keeping the runs to just five. In a format all about strike rates and keeping a lid on climbing equations, this passage of play was match-altering despite the last-ditch attack from Titans where Rutherford and Rahul Tewatia hit a few boundaries.
The match was also won and lost in the no-holds-barred batting approach Punjab Kings hit Titans with. Clearly not prepared for Arya, Titans kept feeding him with pace and length in the Powerplay. Mohammed Siraj was heaved for a boundary through deep square before Kagiso Rabada came under fire, his low full toss carted easily after Arya was gifted a life because of a miscommunication between Rashid Khan and Arshad Khan as they converged on a catch. Rubbing salt into the wounds, Arya then took 21 runs off Arshad’s over, shellacking three boundaries and a six over deep backward square leg. With the score reading 73/1 after six overs and Titans looking in disarray, Punjab Kings pressed further with Iyer.
It was an onslaught alright from Iyer, warming up by presenting the full face of the bat to Rabada and picking a four. More emphatic was the six he whipped over deep square, before turning on Sai Kishore and Rashid Khan for massive sixes that kept getting bigger. Special though was the way Iyer gave Prasidh Krishna the charge in the 17th over, hitting 6,4,6,6 after hurting himself with an attempted pull that bottom-edged into his ribcage. Iyer got to 50 off 27 balls, but his next 47 runs came off 15 balls. Forcing bowlers to go wide, making the outfielders to be pushed to the edge of the boundary, sometimes balancing on the padding, Iyer kept up the pressure till Shashank took over in the last over bowled by Siraj.
Iyer needed three runs for his hundred but the instructions were clear. “From ball one, Shreyas said don’t worry about my hundred,” Shashank told the broadcaster during the innings break. “I know the shots I can back. I focus on my strengths rather than things which I can’t do.” Four boundaries off the last four deliveries was more than enough convincing that Shashank was the right man for the final flourish.
