Punjab Kings Defeat Reasons: The 18th match of IPL 2025 was played between Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals. In this match held in Mullanpur, Shreyas Iyer’s team had to face defeat by 50 runs. This is the first defeat of PBKS this season. Playing first, Rajasthan Royals scored 205 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs and gave Punjab a target of 206 runs to win. Chasing this target, Shreyas Iyer and company could score only 155 runs after losing 9 wickets after playing the full over.
Punjab Kings: It is not that the Punjab team was lagging behind in this match from the beginning. During Punjab’s innings, when Glenn Maxwell and Nehal Wadhera were at the crease, it seemed that the host team would win easily. But after both of them were out, all the hopes of Punjab were over. Let’s know about the 3 big reasons due to which Punjab lost.
3. Punjab Kings: Shreyas Iyer’s ordinary captaincy
Punjab Kings: Shreyas Iyer’s captaincy was very good in the first two matches. His decisions also proved to be effective for the team, but in this match, Iyer’s captaincy looked a bit ordinary. Punjab’s bowling attack lacked a fifth major bowler. Apart from this, he got Glenn Maxwell to bowl only one over. If Maxwell had got more overs, he might have been able to curb the runs. Iyer expressed confidence in Stoinis, who conceded 48 runs in 4 overs.
2. Loose bowling by the bowlers in the last overs
Punjab bowlers failed miserably in stopping runs along with taking wickets in the last overs. Rajasthan Royals batsmen took advantage of this weakness of the host team and scored 63 runs in the last five overs by taking only 1 wicket. This is the reason why RR’s team was able to put up a mountainous total.
1. Openers failed
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PBKS had a target of scoring 206 runs to win this match. Punjab needed a good start to chase such a big target, but both the openers disappointed. Two in-form Punjab batsmen returned to the pavilion in the first over itself. From here the whole team came under pressure. If any one of Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh had scored a half-century, then perhaps the result of the match could have changed.