🏏IPL 2025 - Match 69: PBKS vs MI at Jaipur @ 7:30pm🏏 - Page 3

Strong Indian cores

Both Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians have exceptionally strong Indian cores. For PBKS, captain Shreyas Iyer, wicket-keeper batter Prabhsimran Singh, opener Priyansh Arya, finisher Shashank Singh and pacer Arshdeep Singh have been crucial.

On the other hand, MI have rode on the strong performances of Suryakumar Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma for most of their wins.

What happens if MI win?

If Mumbai Indians win, they will provisionally rise to the top of the table, and PBKS instead will be confirmed an Eliminator spot. MI have the best net-run-rate among all teams in the top 4, meaning they will leapfrog GT with a victory. Once again, GT's fate will depend on RCB's result tomorrow.

What happens if PBKS win?

If Punjab Kings win, they will rise to the top of the table, due to having a better net-run-rate than GT. MI will be confirmed 4th spot and a spot in the Eliminator of IPL 2025. Gujarat Titans will slip to second, and their fate will depend on RCB tomorrow.

Big chance for both teams

Table-toppers Gujarat Titans losing both of their final two matches has given a chance to PBKS and MI to seal a top-two finish with a win today. PBKS and MI have lost just one of their last 5 games, and will be hoping to bring their A-game tonight in Jaipur.

Why is Qualifier 1 spot so important?

Sealing a top two finish and a Qualifier 1 berth allows a team to have two cracks at making the playoffs. If you win Qualifier 1, you directly go through to the final. But even if you lose, you get another shot in Qualifier 2.

Winner seals top two

The winner of today's match will provisionally rise to the top of the IPL 2025 table, and will seal a spot in Qualifier 1. PBKS are on 17 points and MI are on 16 points as of now, but the game has huge stakes in the final fate of both sides.

Thanks for the tag ❤️❤️.

18:30 Local Time, 13:00 GMT: When Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals on Wednesday, the top four was decided with seven league matches still remaining. Five matches later, we still don't know who's going to make it to the top-two, courtesy the losses suffered by the top three teams (GT, PBKS and RCB).

Mumbai Indians are on a roll. After yet another slow start to their season losing four of their first five matches, they've picked up momentum at the right time with seven wins in their last eight matches. The scary part (for other teams) is that most of their victories have been convincing. It doesn't seem like there's any chink in their armour. Even on a sluggish track, despite a slow-ish start, they managed to score 180 and that's a testament to their adaptability.

Pitch Report | Deep Dasgupta and Aaron Finch: It's the final game here at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, and it's a very important one. It's the battle to qualify as the top two teams. As far as the pitch is concerned, it's kind of in the centre of the square. On one side, it's 67m and on the other side, it's 63m (square boundaries), straight down is 71m. This has been one of the most consistent squares so far this season - a lot of runs. Not too consistent if you're a fast bowler or a spinner, there's not a lot of help. When you look down at the surface, straightaway, it has a beautiful matting of grass on it, slightly dry underneath but this grass coverage will keep some pace in it. That will mean you can play shots all around the ground. The one thing that you've to be mindful of is that a big breeze blowing towards the shorter side. How they defend that boundary, expect a lot of straighter balls and bowling wide to the longer side. The pitch will not change, the bias isn't towards either batting first or second. So, the batters can play their shots, put pressure and make it hard chasing down scores. You want to chase totals in this format, but will one of the captains be brave enough and bat first if he wins the toss?

PKBs won the toss and will bowl first.