Ahmedabad: Under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer, Punjab Kings have started IPL 2025 with a win. Punjab bought captain Iyer, who won the IPL trophy in 2024, in the auction for 26.75 crores. Along with batting, Iyer showed his captaincy. Batting first, Punjab scored 243 runs for 5 wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium. Gujarat also gave a tough fight but the team could only score 232 runs for 5 wickets in 20 overs. Punjab won by 11 runs.
Captain Shreyas Iyer started his tenure for Punjab Kings with a brilliant innings of 97 not out off 42 balls. Shreyas hit nine sixes and five fours but he could not complete his first century in IPL as he did not get the strike in the last over. Shashank Singh (44 off 16 balls) scored 23 runs from this over of Mohammad Siraj and ended Punjab's innings brilliantly. Shashank hit six fours and two sixes during his brilliant innings.
Earlier, debutant Priyansh Arya (47 off 23 balls) took advantage of the lifeline and took an aggressive stance against Gujarat bowlers from the very first over. The left-handed batsman hit his first six and then a four at deep square leg against Siraj. Kagiso Rabada gave Gujarat the first breakthrough by dismissing Prabhsimran Singh (five). As soon as Iyer came on the field, he hit a four against Rabada and then sent the ball to the spectators.
Gujarat captain Shubman Gill handed over the ball to Rashid Khan and this charismatic bowler from Afghanistan gave the team the second breakthrough by dismissing Arya. His compatriot Azmatullah Omarzai (16) opened the account by hitting a six off the first ball. The left-arm spinner Sai Kishore dismissed Omarzai and Glenn Maxwell on consecutive balls, taking Punjab's score to 105 for four in the 11th over.
However, these wickets did not affect Iyer's innings. He completed his half-century in 27 balls. Shreyas then spoiled Rashid's figures by hitting two consecutive sixes against him. Stoinis became the third victim of Kishore, who proved to be Gujarat's most successful bowler, by scoring 20 runs in 15 balls. Iyer and Shashank then made an unbeaten partnership of 81 runs in 28 balls to take the team past 240 runs.
