Sports desk9 minutes ago
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Under the captaincy of Shreyas Iyer, Punjab Kings won the IPL for the first time in history. The team defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Punjab was playing the final after 11 years and the team broke the dream of winning the first title of RCB playing the fourth final.
The batting of youth and unkapped Indian players was very important in Punjab’s victory. The fast bowlers won the team in the tournament. At the same time, captain Shreyas Iyer set a record of winning IPL titles from 2 different teams in 2 years with his best leadership and batting. He made Kolkata the champion in 2024.
Punjab’s title winning strategy in 3 points
1. Team Strategy
Slower bouncers and youth trust
Punjab Kings, who changed 17 captains in the 18 season, handed over the leadership to a title winning captain for the first time. In the mega auction, captain Shreyas was bought by the team for Rs 26.75 crore. Also formed a strong team on the strength of youth and unkapped players. Who gave the entire season full performance.
In the playoff stage, Punjab’s pacers used the strategy of the Slower Bouncer. The team adopted it in Ahmedabad against Mumbai in qualifier-2 and Bangalore in the final and won both matches. Where Mumbai was moving towards 225, only 203 runs could be scored due to the bouncer. Which Punjab achieved with 1 over remaining. The same strategy worked against RCB and the team stopped him at a low score.
- The first 24 -year -old Priyansh Arya, playing IPL, strengthened the opening. He scored 2 centuries and 2 fifty at a strike rate of over 183.
- Prabhasimran Singh, who was retained, supported Priyansh well. He scored 500 plus runs at a strike rate of 4 fifty and more than 163.
- Only 24 -year -old Nehal Wadhera, playing the first season from Punjab, strengthened the middle order. He scored 2 fifty and scored more than 350 runs at a strike rate of 150 plus.
- Retained Shashank Singh made finishing strong. He scored 2 fifty at a strike rate of 161 plus and scored around 300 runs.
- 29 -year -old left arm spinner Harpreet Brar played only 8 matches, but he spent only from an economy of 8.63 and took 10 wickets. All the matches Brar got a chance, they took out big wickets.
2. Top-5 heroes
Shreyas, Arshdeep, Yansan, English, Chahal
Senior players of Punjab also won the team’s victory this time. Captain Shreyas also led his batting with captaincy. He joined Josh English in batting. At the same time, bowling Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansan and Yuzvendra Chahal tied the batter of opposition teams.
- Captain Shreyas left Kolkata and became part of Punjab. He scored 97 runs against Gujarat in the first match. Shreyas then scored 87 runs on just 41 balls in Mumbai in Qualifier-2 and brought the team to the final. Shreyas scored 600 plus runs by scoring 6 fifty. His strike rate was also more than 175.
- Arshdeep Singh leads the bowling attack. He took 21 wickets in 17 matches and gave big wickets with the new ball on several important occasions. He was the top wicket of the team. He also took 3 wickets in the final.
- Yuzvendra Chahal could not play 3 matches due to Inzari, but took 16 wickets in 14 matches. He also took the crucial wicket of Mayank Agarwal in the final.
- Marco Janson returned to South Africa after the league stage. He took 16 wickets in 14 matches and won the team big matches. After him, Kyle Jaimisson took responsibility and took 3 big wickets in the final.
- Josh English did not get opportunities in the opening matches, but after the middle phase he became permanent on number-3. He scored 239 runs at a strike rate of 161 plus. It was English to win the last and important match of the league stage to the team against Mumbai. This result got the team finish in the top-2.
3. Turning Point
Loses at home, won 82% matches outside
Home and Ave system are kept in the IPL because the teams won the matches according to their strength on the homeground. However, Punjab lost 3 out of 5 matches at their homeground Mullanpur itself. The team also lost qualifier-1 against RCB in Mullanpur itself. Punjab lost 5 matches in the season, 2 defeats in Hyderabad and Jaipur besides Mullanpur.
His biggest reason for becoming the champion of Punjab was also to win out of the house. The team played 11 matches outside Mullanpur and won 9. These included winning qualifiers-2 and finals on the Ahmedabad ground. The team made its debut in the 18th season with the victory at the Narendra Modi Stadium itself.
Apart from Ahmedabad, Punjab also won matches in Lucknow, Bengaluru, Chennai and Dharamshala. When the second phase schedule was released, 3 matches of the team were held in Jaipur, the team also won 2 here. Winning 82% matches out of the homeground was the biggest reason for Punjab becoming champions.
Punjab won 2 matches in Mullanpur. One of which was also defending 111 runs against Kolkata. Shreyas’ leadership skills emerged in this match. He set up a continuous attacking field to put pressure on the batter, placed more fielders in slip and 30 yard circles. Yuzvendra Chahal was properly used and included Kolkata for 95 runs. After this match, the team won 7 out of 10 matches and also won the title.
Qualifier-1 was also very important in Punjab’s Title Winning Campaign. In this match, the team was all out for 101 runs on their own homeground. RCB won the match in just 10 overs and forced Punjab to play qualifier-2. PBks made a comeback from here and took the title of 190 Plus in 2 consecutive matches and won the title.
