Mullanpur: A low-scoring thriller was seen in IPL 2025. Punjab Kings have won by defending the lowest score in IPL history. Playing first in the match against Kolkata Knight Riders, Punjab's innings was bundled out for 111 runs. At one time KKR's score was 63 runs for 2 wickets in the 8th over. Coming back from here, Punjab Kings bundled out KKR's innings for 95 runs. In this way, Punjab created history by winning by 16 runs. Earlier, Chennai Super Kings had won against Punjab in 2009 after scoring 116 runs.
Punjab's batting failed completely
Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer's strategy of batting first after winning the toss on his home ground backfired as all his batsmen except openers Priyansh Arya (22) and Prabhsimran Singh (30) struggled on home ground. Apart from these two, only Nehal Wadhera (10), Shashank Singh (18) and Xavier Bartlett (11) could score in double digits. Harshit Rana (three wickets for 25 runs) was the most successful bowler for KKR, while Varun Chakraborty (two wickets for 21 runs) and Sunil Narayan (two wickets for 14 runs) took two wickets each.
Harshit, who came to bowl in the fourth over, after conceding a six on the first ball, dismissed Arya and captain Shreyas Iyer (0) within three balls to bring about a great comeback for KKR. Punjab's poor batting continued even after this and Josh Inglis (two) was bowled by Chakravarthy. These wickets had no effect on Prabhsimran and this wicketkeeper batsman hit two consecutive sixes off Harshit's balls in the sixth over. However, he became the third victim of this bowler just two balls later.
The team was in trouble after losing four wickets for 54 runs in the powerplay and the responsibility of improving the innings was on experienced Glenn Maxwell (7) and Vadhera. Both batted cautiously for two overs but Norkia showed Vadhera the way to the pavilion in his second spell. Maxwell's poor form continued and he became the victim of Chakravarthy. Shashank and Bartlett took the team past 100 runs with a 23-run partnership for the ninth wicket but both were out within three balls. Arora got Shashank lbw while Bartlett got run out and Punjab's innings ended.
The last 8 wickets fell for 32 runs
KKR had a bad start while chasing the target. In the very first over, Marco Jansen bowled Sunil Narine. Quinton de Kock was also out in the second over. After two wickets fell for 7 runs, Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi took over the innings. Both of them took the team's score beyond 50. When captain Ajinkya Rahane (17) was out in the 8th over, KKR's score was 62 runs. He was LBW by Yuzvendra Chahal. Rahane would have been saved if he had taken DRS.
After this, the process of wickets falling started. Angkrish was out on Chahal's ball after scoring 37 runs. Glenn Maxwell took the wicket of Venkatesh Iyer. Chahal dismissed Rinku Singh and Ramandeep Singh on two consecutive balls and reduced KKR's score to 7 wickets for 76 runs. Harshit Rana was also dismissed on a score of 79. Andre Russell scored 16 runs in one over against Chahal. Now KKR needed 17 runs to win and 6 overs were left. In the 15th over, Arshdeep Singh bowled 5 dot balls and dismissed Vaibhav Arora on the last ball. On the next ball of the next over, Jansen bowled Russell and gave Punjab the victory.
