Courtesy: BCCI/IPL
In one of the most shocking matches in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Punjab Kings (PBKS) defended the lowest-ever total of 111 runs at the expense of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Maharaja Yadavindra International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur. After suffering a 16-run defeat in the IPL 2025 clash, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane was left disappointed, and in the post-match press conference, he talked about it being a collective failure of the batting unit.
Notably, after winning the toss, PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer chose to bat first, and it led to their opening pair of Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh getting off to a flyer, scoring 39 runs for the first wicket in just 3.2 overs. From that point onwards, the entire innings belonged to the KKR bowlers, starting with Harshit Rana, who did for Priyansh Arya and Shreyas Iyer in the same over, to bring his team back into the contest.
After Harshit Rana took the key wicket of Prabhsimran Singh, who had scored 30 off 15 with two fours and three sixes, the spin duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy came into the picture for KKR, taking a couple of wickets each, to break the back of PBKS batting lineup. Following the completion of the Punjab innings for 111 runs in just 15.3 overs, Kolkata didn’t have a good start with the bat either as they lost their openers Sunil Narine and Quinton de Kock within the first couple of overs.
Ajinkya Rahane (17 off 17) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi shared a 55-run stand for the third wicket (37 off 28), put KKR on the brink of an easy win, but then, Yuzvendra Chahal had other ideas as he not only dismissed them, but also ended up with figures of 4/28 in his four-over spell. After the leg spinner changed the complexion of the match, it was the experienced fast bowling duo of Marco Jansen and Arshdeep Singh, who picked up the last three wickets, bowling out KKR for 95 runs in 15.1 overs, to send the PBKS crowd into delirium inside the stadium.
It's a collective failure of the batting unit: Ajinkya Rahane after KKR's defeat to PBKS in IPL 2025
In the post-match press conference, Ajinkya Rahane discussed the tough outing for KKR away from home, and said, “The wicket was good. It was not an unplayable wicket or that something was wrong. The wicket was very good. The ball was coming a little late. But the bowlers did half of the work. Like you said, they were all out at 111. It was comparatively easy to chase at 112 on this wicket. We also got a good start. We got 50 in the Powerplay and at 70, I think we had 3 wickets. But again, it's a collective failure of the batting unit.”
“Many times, it's not only about hitting sixes or playing big shots. Strike rotation is also very important. And I am sure that didn't happen with our batting unit. It's not like Punjab bowled extremely well. I think we played bad cricket as a batting unit. I take this responsibility as a captain, as we couldn't chase this down,” he added.
