Punjab Kings (PBKS) pulled off a heist against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, at the Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, Chandigarh. Opting to bat, PBKS were bowled out for 111 before Yuzvendra Chahal spun a web with figures of 4 for 28 that triggered a batting collapse as KKR lost 6 for 17 in 31 balls and were ultimately bowled out for 95. PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting looked visibly ecstatic at the post-match press conference after Punjab's 16-run win and served up a cheeky response to a reporter's question who suggested moving Glenn Maxwell up the batting order and switching it with captain Shreyas Iyer.

"Yeah, we've got a guy called Shreyas Iyer at number 3. If I want to stay in my job, I'm probably not going to move the captain. So as we all know, the captain sets the batting order. He's pretty happy at number 3 and he's been outstanding in the tournament. So you know we're always trying to find the right time in the game," Ponting responded.

Maxwell has had a horror run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) so far, having scored 41 runs in six games, with not much luck either with his off-spinners. Iyer, on the other hand, has notched up 250 runs in the same number of games at a strike rate of 204.91 for PBKS and stands at No.4 in the list of most runs scored in the tournament so far. Goes without saying that he is in the reckoning to wear the orange cap sooner rather than later in the edition.

"It's not about numbers that these guys bat. It's about the right time that you can inject them into the game. So we've got good flexibility with our batting order. We've moved a few guys around already this season. As things go on, and we come up with a more settled side, there probably won't be guys moving around too much," the PBKS coach added.

Marcus Stoinis was surprisingly left out of the playing XI against the Kolkata Knight Riders, and Josh Inglis was drafted into the team. While Inglis didn't have a great outing with the bat, managing only 2 off 6 balls before getting cleaned up by Varun Chakaravarthy, he did his bit behind the stumps. Talking about excluding Stoinis from the playing XI, Ponting said that Inglis is a noted player against spin and that earned him a place in the side ahead of Stoinis.

"Yeah, a tough decision to leave Stoinis out, you know, we wanted to bring Inglis into the side. Inglis is a noted player of spin that didn't probably look that way tonight, but he is a very, very good player of spin. His keeping is as good as anyone's in the world as well, and we wanted the matchups with the ball with Marco," said Ponting.

"We wanted the matchups with the ball with Glenn Maxwell. So unfortunately, for Marcus Stoinis, it had to be him that missed out tonight, but then you go to a different venue, you know, in two days we're up in Bangalore against them up there. Who knows what combination we might come up with for that?" he added.

Having won the match against KKR, PBKS now stands fourth in the points table with four wins and two losses. They will be up against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Friday, April 18, 2025.

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