Punjab Kings executed one of the greatest comebacks in an IPL match by defending a record low total against Kolkata Knight Riders in Mullanpur in Match No. 31 of IPL 2025. The win helped PBKS sneak into the top four of the points table in the tournament.
PBKS’ openers started strong, but Harshit Rana’s (3 for 25) triple strikes in the powerplay slowed the hosts down. In the middle overs, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy played their part in making sure PBKS collapsed to a paltry 111. KKR lost both their openers within eight balls of the chase, but Ajinkya Rahane and Angkrish Raghuvanshi got a partnership going that seemed to decidedly put the match in the Knights’ favour. Enter Yuzvendra Chahal (4 for 28).
Chahal’s dismissal of Rahane sparked a collapse as KKR lost six wickets for 17 runs in 31 balls with Chahal taking four of them. In terms of the required run rate, KKR were cruising but had lost too many wickets. Andre Russell took a last stand by blasting Chahal’s last over for 16 runs but could not retain strike for the next over. Arshdeep Singh bowled a crucial wicket maiden to Vaibhav Arora to leave KKR with 17 runs to chase off the last five overs but just one wicket left. Russell chopped Marco Jansen on and the home side had pulled off the lowest successful defence in the IPL.
Also Read: Watch: Marco Jansen castles Sunil Narine immediately after being hit for four
Here are the most important numbers from the match
1 – Glenn Maxwell’s batting average of 6.64 in the IPL since the start of 2024 is the lowest for any top six batter with a minimum of 10 innings in that period. In fact, Maxwell is the only one on the list to average in single digits.
1 – Sunil Narine moved up to be the highest wicket-taker against PBKS in the IPL and also broke the record for the most wickets against a single team in the IPL with 36 against Punjab Kings. Umesh Yadav with 35 wickets, also against PBKS, is second.
3 – Sunil Narine is now the joint-third highest wicket-taker in the IPL with 187 wickets. Bhuvneshwar Kumar also has the same number while Piyush Chawla (192) and Yuzvendra Chahal (211) are the only ones ahead. R Ashwin (185) is also hot on their heels.
1 – Yuzvendra Chahal became the highest wicket-taker against KKR in IPL history amassing 33 wickets against the defending champions going past Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 32.
3 – Chahal’s 33 wickets against KKR are the joint-third most wickets by a player against a single team in the IPL. Sunil Narine and Umesh Yadav, both against PBKS, have 36 and 35 wickets respectively. Dwayne Bravo and Mohit Sharma, both against MI, also have 33 wickets. Next two entries on the list are Bhuvneshwar Kumar against KKR and Chahal against his current team, PBKS, with 32 each.
1 – With 84, Arshdeep Singh is now the joint-highest wicket-taker for Punjab Kings in the IPL. Piyush Chawla also has as many but last played for the franchise in 2013.
1 – The 111 defended by PBKS in this match is the lowest total successfully defended in the IPL. The previous record was CSK’s successful defence of 116 against PBKS themselves all the way back in 2009.
1 – PBKS also hold the record for the highest successful chase in the IPL. Incidentally, both these records came against KKR.
5 – This was the fifth IPL match where all 20 wickets fell, i.e, both teams were all out. Needless to say, the team defending won the previous four as well.
4 – The collective batting average of 10.30 (206 runs for 20 wickets) in this match is the fourth lowest in IPL history. KKR’s game against RCB at Kolkata in 2017 had a collective match batting average of 9.00 after RCB were infamously dismissed for 49, still the lowest team total in IPL. That game is the only one with a collective average below ten in the IPL.
3,4 – In IPL 2025, KKR have won all three matches where Moeen Ali was a part of the playing XII and lost all four matches where the Englishman warmed the bench.
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