After 72 matches and two gruelling months of play-travel-play, with a break in between, only three teams are left standing in IPL 2025: Royal Challengers Bengaluru RCB, Punjab Kings PBKS and Mumbai Indians MI. While RCB have already qualified for the final, MI will meet PBKS in another crunch game on Sunday to identify the other finalist.
Five-time champions vs a team that is in quest for its first title. Hardik Pandya vs Shreyas Iyer. Jasprit Bumrah vs Arshdeep Singh. Suryakumar Yadav vs Josh Inglis. Trent Boult vs Kyle Jamieson. It promises to be a mouth-watering knockout.
Both teams have had contrasting paths to Qualifier 2. Around mid-April, MI were second from bottom, with just a solitary win in five games. But they went on to do MI things to storm into the playoffs and knock out Gujarat Titans GT on Friday. As for PBKS, they were the form team in the league phase, topping the points table before they suffered a rude jolt in Qualifier 1 against RCB in New Chandigarh.
The reward for finishing in the top two is another crack at the final. PBKS had earned that reward after beating MI in Jaipur earlier this week. Another win against MI on Sunday will guarantee a first-time IPL champion.