The duo of Ricky Ponting and Shreyas Iyer continued their purple patch and propelled Punjab Kings (PBKS) to the final of IPL 2025. They had worked together at Delhi Capitals (DC) from IPL 2018 to 2020. DC played their first-ever IPL final in 2020. After four seasons, the duo reunited at PBKS and have wonders for the team.

Shreyas paid ultimate respect to Ponting after the second qualifier and won the hearts of the fans. "Well, we’ve got the coach with the winning captain. It’s right, yeah, halfway mark," Ponting said while speaking to the official broadcaster. Shreyas chipped in and paid respect to Ponting by saying, “Winning coach with the winning captain."

“Good point, par score, above par, below par. What do you think?" Ponting said. “I feel the way it was playing, even bounce, even all coming off the weekend. It was tremendous. I felt, personally felt that it should have been a 220-wicket," Shreyas responded.

Courtesy of Shreyas' unbeaten 87 off 41 balls, PBKS chased down the big target of 204 to qualify for the final. The PBKS captain batted with a strike rate of 212.20. He added a crucial 84-run partnership with Nehal Wadhera. The uncapped batter scored 48 off 29 balls.

Josh Inglis also played his part in the win and scored 38 off 21 balls. He punished Bumrah in his opening over and smashed him for 2 sixes and as many boundaries. The MI pacer leaked 40 runs in 4 overs and went wicketless.

PBKS will face Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the final on Tuesday (June 3). The Rajat Patidar-led side punched its ticket to the final with a win over PBKS in the first qualifier. IPL is set to have first-time winners as both RCB and PBKS have never won the elusive title. Both teams have been part of IPL since its inception.

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