IPL 2025: Brar, Shashank, Wadhera star as PBKS beat RR by 10 runs
The Shreyas Iyer-led team requires one additional point to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2014
Left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar produced a match-winning spell after Nehal Wadhera and Shashank Singh scored smashing fifties as Punjab Kings inched closer to an IPL playoffs spot with a 10-run victory over Rajasthan Royals on Sunday (May 18).
Brar, who replaced skipper Shreyas Iyer as a replacement -- was brought into the bowling in the fifth over and the left-arm spinner took 3/22 in four overs to lead PBKS to limit RR to 209/7 while chasing 220.
The Punjab team had previously scored 219/5 on the back of an unbeaten 59 off 30 balls by Shashank and Wadhera (70 off 37 balls).
The Shreyas Iyer-led team requires one additional point to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
Brar, who varied his angles, trajectories, and pace with accuracy, had a sizeable contribution in that.
His wickets were Vaibhav Suryavanshi (40 off 15 balls) and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had opened a brutal attack at the top with his (50 off 24).
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They departed collectively off the blocks in a stand off 76 off 4.1 overs. Azmatullah Omarzai (2/44) then struck a double blow, removing skipper Sanju Samson (20 off 16) and Shimron Hetmyer (11 off 12), and RR's chase lost impetus.
Dhruv Jurel (53 off 31 balls) struck form to register his second fifty of the season but in vain as Marco Jansen (2/41 from three overs) dismissed him and Wanindu Hasaranga in consecutive balls in the last over to cut short their pursuit.
RR were 51 for no loss in only three overs -- 50 of those runs in boundaries, and one through a wide.
Suryavanshi continued his fireworks by hitting two consecutive sixes off Arshdeep, and RR stormed to 76 in just 29 balls.
Choosing to bat, PBKS began positively but lost opening batsman Priyansh Arya in the second over, caught by Hetmyer off Tushar Deshpande (2/37). Prabhsimran Singh kept the run rate going for a while, hitting Maphaka for a four and a six, but wickets kept falling.
IPL debutant Mitchell Owen was bowled for a two-ball duck, holing out to Samson off Maphaka. Prabhsimran (22 off 12) quickly followed, edging Deshpande to Samson, who successfully reviewed after the on-field umpire denied it.
Skipper Iyer (30 off 25) and Wadhera then added a 67-run partnership off 44 balls for the fourth wicket. Omarzai gave the finishing touches with an unbeaten 21 off nine balls, taking PBKS past the 200-run mark.