Latest news with #IPLQualifier2
Hans India
2 days ago
- General
- Hans India
Ricky Ponting 'Gutted' as Shreyas Iyer Misses Out on India's Test Squad for England Series
The exclusion of Shreyas Iyer from India's 18-member Test squad for England series has sparked significant debate. Despite putting up an impressive performances in domestic cricket and the IPL, Iyer was not included in the squad. India will play a five-match series against England, starting June 20. Former Australian cricketer and current Punjab Kings head coach, Ricky Ponting, expressed his disappointment over Iyer's omission. Ponting acknowledged Iyer's exceptional form in the IPL, where he scored 514 runs, and felt that the selection committee overlooked his consistent performances in domestic cricket as well. Ponting suggested that the decision might have been influenced by Iyer's previous Test performances, which were underwhelming. The Indian squad for the England series includes: Shubman Gill (C) Rishabh Pant (VC & WK) Yashasvi Jaiswal KL Rahul Sai Sudharsan Abhimanyu Easwaran Karun Nair Nitish Reddy Ravindra Jadeja Dhruv Jurel (WK) Washington Sundar Shardul Thakur Jasprit Bumrah Mohammad Siraj Prasidh Krishna Akash Deep Arshdeep Singh Kuldeep Yadav Notably, Shreyas Iyer's absence from the squad has been a topic of discussion among cricket experts and fans alike. His recent performances, including a match-winning 87* in the IPL Qualifier 2, have raised questions about the selection criteria. While the selection committee has not publicly commented on Iyer's exclusion, the decision has certainly ignited conversations about the balance between domestic performance and past international records in team selection.
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Hindu
Job only half done, says Shreyas Iyer ahead of final
After securing the win against Mumbai Indians in the IPL Qualifier 2 here on Sunday, Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer walked off without much celebration. Shreyas, who played out of his skin to guide PBKS home, shifted his focus immediately to the next task — the grand final on Tuesday. 'After the win over Mumbai, I felt like my job was only half done. The job is not yet finished. We have a match on Tuesday, and I have to come back to play tomorrow. So I was thinking that recovery is important, and how to prepare myself,' Shreyas said in a press conference here on Monday. The 30-year-old rated the unbeaten 87 as his best-ever T20 knock. 'To win any match for your team is the best feeling in the world. Yes, given the pressure occasion, I would rate this as the best innings I have played,' Shreyas said. Shreyas' stint showed his tough as nails character, given that his team was routed by RCB just a few days earlier in Qualifier 1. 'I love to play according to the situation, and not get too much ahead of the game. I want to see to it that I take the game to the end,' Shreyas said. On Tuesday, PBKS will depend heavily on experienced leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who has returned from a wrist injury. Chahal may not be 100 per cent fit, but he is an invaluable asset. 'Chahal is a very experienced bowler. He has played a lot of big matches. He is lethal,' Shreyas said. Having started the IPL 2025 campaign with a win over Gujarat Titans here, the city of Ahmedabad has been kind to PBKS. To cap it off with the trophy will be the dream end to the script. 'We have been consistent this season. And it all started here in Ahmedabad. Now we are in the final. I am very excited,' Shreyas said.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya fined for slow over rate in IPL Qualifier 2
Both Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer and Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya were fined for their teams' slow over-rate in the IPL Qualifier 2 match on Sunday. Iyer was fined Rs 24 lakh as it was his team's second offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct while Pandya was docked Rs 30 lakh for third time offenders MI. 'As it was his team's second offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Iyer was fined INR 24 lakhs. Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya has also been fined after his team maintained a slow over rate. As it was his team's third offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Pandya was fined INR 30 Lakh,' an IPL statement read. Also, the rest of the members of the PBKS playing XI were each fined either Rs 6 lakh or 25 per cent of their respective match fees, whichever is lesser, while MI players were penalised Rs 12 lakh or 50 per cent of their match fees. In the match, Iyer lead from the front with a blistering 87 runs off 41 balls as Punjab Kings learnt from their Qualifier 1 mistakes and defeated the much-fancied Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets in their Qualifier 2 encounter at Ahmedabad on Sunday. They will now face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final on June 3 which will be a repeat of the Qualifier 1 encounter with both teams looking for their maiden title. Chasing a stiff target, PBKS lost Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya cheaply before Josh Inglis put up a breezy 21-ball 38. He was taken down by Hardik Pandya before Iyer and Nehal Wadhera dragged PBKS over the line in a tight contest. Earlier, a collective batting performance led by Suryakumar Yaadav and Tilak Varma took Mumbai Indians to a par 203 for six in a rain-delayed contest against Punjab Kings. (With agency inputs)
India Today
3 days ago
- Sport
- India Today
IPL 2025: Forged by fire, Shreyas Iyer blazes through the battle for recognition
If Shreyas Iyer had been batting on that second day of the Manchester Test back in 1993, there's a fair chance he'd have casually swept Shane Warne's vicious leg-spinner out of trouble. There would have been no 'ball of the century'. Drop him into Adelaide on that scorching December morning in 2013, and Mitchell Johnson's fiery outswinger? Probably met with a calm dead bat, middled like a routine much? Maybe. But if you were up past midnight on Sunday, 1 June, watching Iyer dig out a Jasprit Bumrah yorker-seemingly destined to smash into the base of middle stump-and calmly guide it past the keeper with surgical precision, you'd know this was no exaggeration. The Narendra Modi Stadium was left speechless. Even AB de Villiers, a maestro of cricketing wizardry, confessed he'd likely have shattered his bat attempting that shot-and crowned Iyer's effort 'the shot of IPL 2025'.In that moment, Shreyas Iyer reminded us of what every cricket fan lives for: the thrill of watching someone do the improbable, and make it look easy. Shreyas Iyer's eyes told the story. Not when he was casually dispatching the best bowlers in the world during his blistering 41-ball 87 not out against the serial winners Mumbai Indians in the make-or-break IPL Qualifier 2, as Punjab Kings chased to become the first team to score 200-plus against a Jasprit Bumrah-led attack. No, the real story was in those now-iconic words he spoke after a crushing 8-wicket defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Qualifier 1: "We have lost the battle, not the war."advertisementAt the time, it felt a touch over-the-top - almost too bullish - coming off a performance where his side had overcooked their aggression on a spicy pitch in Mullanpur, folding for a mere 101, the second-lowest total ever in an IPL playoff. Many wondered if Punjab Kings had simply run out of steam at the worst possible moment, after punching above their weight and exceeding all expectations by reaching the playoffs in the first PUNJAB DO THE IMPROBABLEWhen Mumbai Indians then posted a daunting 203 on the board, another 'so-near-yet-so-far' heartbreak seemed inevitable for Punjab. But Shreyas, with ice in his veins and fire in his eyes, refused to let that narrative stand. Instead, he produced one of the most unforgettable knocks of the IPL season, proving the doubters spectacularly in at No. 4 after a solid powerplay, Shreyas Iyer initially played second fiddle to Josh Inglis, who was smashing everything in sight. Inglis even blasted a 20-run over off Jasprit Bumrah but fell at the worst possible moment, leaving Punjab wobbling at 72 for 3 in the eighth Iyer vs Jasprit Bumrah - 10 year challenge praneeth? (@JonsnoW96_) June 1, 2025At the same venue two years earlier, Iyer had faltered when it mattered most - the World Cup final against Australia - after a stellar run in the tournament. But the last two years hardened him. He lost his BCCI central contract. He was dropped by Kolkata Knight Riders - the very team he'd led to a long-awaited title. And even as he worked on his game, he was relentlessly reminded of an old flaw - the short ball - a narrative that eventually cost him his Test spot. Each jab, each snub, only sharpened his man who powered Punjab Kings past 72 for 3 in just 19 overs was a new beast. Not once did he crack under pressure. The big guns - Bumrah, Trent Boult - didn't faze him. Instead, they lit a fire under him. It was as if Shreyas had been waiting for this exact moment, this exact stage, to unleash the best version of himself. Courtesy: AP He hit eight towering sixes, each struck with the conviction of a man hungry for IPL glory and eager for another showdown with Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Whenever Mumbai Indians tightened the screws with a tidy couple of overs, Shreyas smashed the pressure away with ruthless clean conceded just 11 runs across overs 11 and 12 - four off left-arm pacer Ashwani Kumar and seven off Bumrah's second over. Iyer responded by pulverising Reece Topley for three sixes in the 13th over. Each time a wicket fell, Iyer answered with a boundary, sending a clear message to Hardik Pandya and his men: he was a man on a mission, unwilling to budge when cricket's most fail-proof tactic couldn't stop Shreyas on Sunday. With 31 needed off the last three overs, Hardik turned to his go-to man, Bumrah. But Punjab's captain was unfazed, collecting eight runs off the over and denying Bumrah the breakthrough. It was in that over that he expertly guided a near-unplayable yorker past the keeper, telling Mumbai that nothing - not even the best in the business and his best weapon - could halt his charge to the IN HIS EYES, ICE IN HIS VEINSShreyas Iyer's celebrations after guiding Punjab Kings to their first IPL final in 11 years were remarkably muted. It was as if he had consciously denied his hypothalamus and posterior pituitary gland the chance to release oxytocin - that flood of joy and relief - until 'Project Punjab' reached its ultimate destination on 3 June. His cold, emotionless body language after smashing the winning six in the 19th over only deepened the intrigue surrounding a man often seen as enigmatic and celebrate? After riding the rollercoaster of highs and lows over the past 24 months, Shreyas Iyer knows that cheering without the IPL trophy in hand would short-change the hard lessons he's learnt. When Iyer was bought by Punjab Kings for a staggering Rs 26.75 crore, it seemed like yet another one of the franchise's characteristic, high-spending auction gambles. Sure, they'd signed a title-winning captain from Kolkata Knight Riders, but the question lingered: was he really worth that kind of money?Shreyas has launched every shred of doubt into the top tier. Courtesy: AP advertisementFor the first time in over a decade, Punjab Kings aren't just here to participate - they're here to terrify. Under Iyer's cold-blooded leadership and Ricky Ponting's cut-the-fluff coaching, this team has morphed from perennial punchline to full-blown powerhouse. Trophy or no trophy, Iyer has already pulled off the greatest heist of IPL 2025 - rewriting Punjab's Shreyas Iyer, 30, eventually calls time on his career, these two years will gleam like a highlight reel on loop. The highs, the heartbreaks. All of it has forged a version of Shreyas that's tougher, sharper, and completely unapologetic. He's still got the strut, still wears his heart on his sleeve. But now, the bat does most of the 603 runs in 16 matches at a strike rate of 175+ didn't kill the noise, that ice-cold 87 in Qualifier 2 sent the critics hasn't been broken by the uncertainty of the game. He's been sharpened by it. In the last 12 months alone: an IPL title with KKR, domestic trophies with Mumbai, and a Champions Trophy medal. While some were busy writing him off, he was busy stacking felt snubbed when the KKR story was rewritten without his name in bold. But now? If Punjab lift the IPL trophy on Tuesday night, don't be surprised if he gives the camera a long, unblinking stare - not to prove a point, but to remind everyone: he was always built for this. IN THIS STORY#IPL 2025
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Hindu
Iyer, Pandya fined for slow over rate
Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer and Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya have been fined for their respective teams' slow over-rate during the IPL Qualifier 2 in Ahmedabad. While Iyer was fined ₹24 lakh as it was his team's second offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct, Pandya was docked ₹30 lakh for third time offenders MI. IPL 2025 Qualifier 2 | MI vs PBKS highlights: Shreyas Iyer helps Punjab Kings beat Mumbai Indians to finals 'As it was his team's second offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Iyer was fined ₹ 24 lakhs,' an IPL statement read. 'Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya has also been fined after his team maintained a slow over rate. As it was his team's third offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Pandya was fined ₹ 30 Lakh,' it added. The rest of the members of the PBKS playing XI were each fined either ₹6 lakh or 25% of their respective match fees, whichever is lesser, while MI players were penalised ₹12 lakh or 50% of their match fees. Iyer scored a sensational 87 not out to take Punjab Kings to a five-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in the Qualifier 2 and their first final since 2014. They will take on Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the summit clash on Tuesday (June 3, 2025).
