Punjab Kings finished first in group stage but failed to win the IPL title.
Punjab Kings (PBKS) fell short by just six runs against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the IPL 2025 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Tuesday (June 3).
Asked to bat first, RCB posted 190/9 on the board in the title clash. While Virat Kohli was the top scorer with 35-ball 43, the likes of Patidar (26 off 16), Liam Livingstone (25 off 15) and Jitesh Sharma (24 off 10) made valuable contributions with the bat.
In reply, PBKS could manage only 184/7 in 20 overs, thanks mainly to Shashank Singh (61 not out) and Josh Inglis 39.
With the ball, Krunal Pandya (2-17 in 4 overs) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-38 in 4 overs) produced magical spells for RCB.
After the match, PBKS head coach Ricky Ponting addressed a press conference, where he conceded that they lacked a little bit of experience in the middle-order while batting second in the final but backed the young players to come good in the future.
“You can look at it (the team) tonight and say was it probably a little bit of inexperience that cost us. Maybe, a little bit of experience in that middle-order today might have helped us out,” Ponting told the media.
“But what I know is that they’re going to win us a lot of games going forward.”
While the pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium was favorable for batting, it was a little bit slower in certain phases of the game.
Ponting, however, refrained from giving any “excuses”. “No, I don’t think so,” he said when asked if the pitch changed in the second half. “There are no excuses from us, no excuses from me, in fact, Shashank at the end of the game said (he thought) that’s the best wicket he has batted on for the whole season,” he said.
“We just lost a bit of momentum at a critical time, probably the last couple of overs of the PowerPlay, you could feel that momentum just started to go away a little bit, and then (again) probably (in) the four or five overs outside the PowerPlay, we just lost momentum (and) we lost critical wickets.
“They (RCB) probably felt they were a little bit short with the bat in the first innings, and we were pretty happy to be able to chase 190. But as I said, I’ll make no excuses, we just weren’t good enough,” Ponting added.
Reflecting on the campaign, Ponting said he would look back at it with satisfaction. “I said in the first press conference I had with Shreyas (Iyer) in Mullanpur before the season started... it was about becoming a daring, dynamic and different team,” he stated.
“On the back of what Prabh (Prabhsimran Singh) and Priyansh (Arya) and (Nehal) Wadhera and these sort of guys were able to do, there’s probably enough being said through the media over the last couple of months.
“The way that we’ve been able to play our cricket, it’s been a highly entertaining team to watch. For a coach, to be able to sit back and talk about a team that way, (it) gives me a lot of satisfaction,” he remarked.
Ponting revealed he told his batters to play with freedom and not worry about getting out right through the season.
“One thing I’ve told this group is (that it is) always (about) taking the game forward, always seeing the positive result in the way that we go about it (and) not thinking about the negative result that might happen if you get out.
“One thing as a batsman in this game (is that) you can’t be worried about getting out. If you’re worried about getting out, you can’t play the game well.”
The former Australia skipper concluded by saying that Punjab Kings will bounce back bigger and stronger next season.
“It was only a couple of days (ago) that we were here celebrating one of our great wins of the season to get into the final, and today we probably feel that we’ve let one slip. But with this group, being as young as it is, we’ll be back bigger and stronger next season,” he signed off.
(With PTI Inputs)