Most of the crowd at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur were left shocked as the home side Punjab Kings were thrashed by Rajat Patidar-led Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by eight wickets in the Qualifier 1 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 season. Shreyas Iyer and co, who topped the points table with 19 points from 14 games, failed to turn up for the high-octane contest as they were bundled out for 101 inside 15 overs.
After the contest, Shreyas Iyer accepted that his side failed to turn up with the bat. However, he refused to say that some of his decisions were wrong, saying the planning was up to the mark and it was just a case of poor execution.
The PBKS batters were found guilty of going too hard in search of a big total. No batter tried to stay in the middle to consolidate and put a decent total on the board. Even Shreyas Iyer went for an ugly hoike off the bowling of Josh Hazlewood. His shot was criticised by Sunil Gavaskar on air and even PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting was seen having an animated chat after Shreyas' dismissal.
"I feel we have to got to go back to the drawing board and see were we went wrong. We were a bit befuddled, to be honest, in terms of reading the wicket. We lost a lot of wickets. There's a lot to go back and study on," said Shreyas Iyer after the match came to an end.
"I am not doubting my decisions, to be honest. Whatever we did in terms of planning, outside of the ground whatever planning we did, I think it was on point. Just that we couldn't execute it on the field, how we wanted to score our runs. Can't even blame the bowlers, as it was a low total to defend. We got to work on our batting, especially on this wicket," he added.
‘We have lost the battle, not war’
{{/usCountry}}"I am not doubting my decisions, to be honest. Whatever we did in terms of planning, outside of the ground whatever planning we did, I think it was on point. Just that we couldn't execute it on the field, how we wanted to score our runs. Can't even blame the bowlers, as it was a low total to defend. We got to work on our batting, especially on this wicket," he added.
‘We have lost the battle, not war’
{{/usCountry}}Shreyas Iyer exuded confidence, realising that his side are not out of the race for the final. They have another chance when they take on the winner of the Eliminator between Gujarat Titans and Mumbai Indians.
"In all the games we have played here, there has been some variable bounce, but we can't give such reasons because we are professionals at the end of the day, and we have to bat according to the situation, and whatever the situation demands, we have to live up to it," said Shreyas.
"We have lost the battle, but not the war," he added.
Speaking of the contest between PBKS and RCB, Suyash Sharma and Josh Hazlewood took three wickets each for the latter to help RCB bundle out the hosts for 101 inside 15 overs.
RCB then chased the total down with 60 balls to spare as Phil Salt hit an unbeaten half-century.
The IPL 2025 final will be played on Tuesday, June 3, at the Narendra Modi Stadium.