IPL 2025 belongs to Shreyas Iyer.
We know that there is still a month's cricket left in IPL 2025, but we can give the player of the tournament award to the Punjab Kings skipper already!
Iyer has been in fine form and continued his good run against Chennai Super Kings on Wednesday with a 41-ball 72 away from home.
Chasing 191 for victory, Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh gave the visitors a good start before Khaleel Ahmad sent the former packing.
In came Iyer. He was composed and confident, and started watchfully. All it took was three deliveries for him to dispatch his first boundary of the evening.
Along with Prabhsimran Singh, he kept the runs coming as the duo hit boundaries whenever the bad balls came.
While Prabhsimran found the big shots at one end, Iyer kept the scoreboard ticking at the other.
They complimented each other well and ensured Punjab maintained the required run-rate.
Prabhsimran brought up his half-ton in the 11th over, but was dismissed soon after.
His dismissal saw Iyer take up the onus to see his team home.
In next over, he smashed Sam Curran for 15 runs, punishing the bowler for predictability and bowling too many slower balls. He completed his half-ton in the same over, off 32 balls.
With 52 needed off five overs, Iyer joined hands with Shashank Singh, who played lovely cameo. Both batters gave Matheestha Pathirana a reality check as 20 runs came in the 17th over, which brought down the equation drastically.
Shashank then came out and did what he was sent to do, hitting back-to-back sixes off Ravindra Jadeja before getting out caught in the deep.
Iyer was the next to go (188-5, 18.4 overs), but in the end Punjab sneaked past CSK with four balls to spare.
'Lately, I have been batting a lot in the nets and facing the quick bowlers, especially with the new ball, and that's given me immense confidence. This is one part I have really worked on. And the attitude is something that I keep high whenever I approach the field. So I think all these small boxes have been ticked and that is there to see,' Iyer said as he assessed his batting.
He eventually won the 'Player of the match' award.
Iyer has hit 25 sixes in IPL 2025 thus far, already his most in any IPL season, equal to what he achieved in his last two seasons combined.
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