PBKS vs DC: Shreyas, Stoinis take Punjab to 206/8

Skipper Shreyas Iyer's sparkling half-century and Marcus Stoinis' quickfire knock at the end helped Punjab Kings (PBKS) score a challenging 206 for eight against Delhi Capitals (DC) in their IPL 2025 match in Jaipur on Saturday night (May 24).

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Stoinis blazed away to a 16-ball 44 not out after Iyer set it up with a 53-run knock off 34 deliveries. Stoinis struck four sixes and three fours during his blistering knock.

Arya goes early

Opting to bowl, DC enjoyed early success as Priyansh Arya (6) top-edged a Mustafizur Rahman (3/33) short ball that cramped the batter for room and wicketkeeper Tristan Stubbs went a few steps backwards to complete a neat catch after the ball went very high.

Josh Inglis picked up a couple of boundaries off Mukesh. Prabhsimran Singh punched one down the ground off Mustafizur for a four before giving the strike back to Inglis, who flicked the left-arm seamer for a maximum over deep backward square.

Prabhsimran found two fours off Mohit Sharma before Vipraj Nigam (2/38) closed out the powerplay with an eventful over in which he was welcomed with a six and a four by Inglis before accounting for the Australian's wicket as the batter was smartly stumped down the leg side by Stubbs after the young leg-spinner bowled a googly.

That brought into the middle PBKS' in-form captain Iyer, and he began his innings with a boundary.

Meanwhile, Prabhsimran whacked Kuldeep Yadav's (2/39) first ball of the match for a six before finding the ropes against Nigam, who, however, had the last laugh again, as the batter inside-edged the ball onto the stump while trying to play the scoop shot.

Prabhsimran's dismissal left PBKS at 77 for three in the ninth over but Iyer was not perturbed as he slog-swept Kuldeep for a six over deep midwicket.

Nigam, who has a bright future and could be a contender for the next T20 World Cup, bowled a tight 10th over as PBKS reached 97 for three at the halfway stage. Mohit also helped in tightening things up in his next two overs.

Mustafizur used the angle well to force Shashank Singh to edge to Stubbs, but Mukesh squandered DC's advantage by conceding 25 runs in an over marked by two sixes, two fours, and three extras.

Iyer's knock finally came to an end when he hit Kuldeep straight to Mohit, who dropped Marcus Stoinis in the precious ball.

Mohit paid for that drop catch as Stoinis pummelled him for 22 runs.

(With agency inputs)