Preity Zinta winks at Punjab Kings player, gets Shreyas Iyer to finally break poker face after PBKS beat MI to enter IPL
“We have lost the battle, not the war,” said Shreyas Iyer after Punjab Kings’ loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 Qualifier 1. The team had everything to play for in Qualifier 2 against give-time champions Mumbai Indians and it was skipper Shreyas who led from the front to help Punjab Kings reach the IPL final for just the second time in their history.
The right-handed Shreyas Iyer played an unbeaten knock of 87 off 41 balls with the help of 5 fours and 8 sixes to help PBKS chase down 204 with five wickets in hand and six balls to spare. As soon as he hit the match-winning six off the bowling of Ashwani Kumar, wild celebrations ensued inside the Punjab Kings’ dugout.
Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting first erupted inside the dugout as he hugged every member of the squad. He then marched onto the ground to give his skipper Shreyas a hug, congratulating him for a marvellous knock under tremendous pressure. He even gave a pat on the shoulder, acknowledging Shreyas’ efforts in the run-chase.
PBKS co-owners Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia also celebrated the win in style. The Bollywood actor first started jumping up and down with her hands raised in the air as soon as Shreyas hit the winning runs. She then made her way to the ground to hug Shreyas Iyer.
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She also embraced PBKS head coach Ponting as the duo chatted about the win. During the post-match presentation, Preity Zinta was even spotted winking towards one of her players. The wink can be seen something out of sheer joy after Preity Zinta had to wait 11 years after 2014 to reach the final.
It must be mentioned that Shreyas Iyer had a serious look on his face throughout the celebrations and it took Preity Zinta to get him to break out of character and smile a bit for the cameras.
Ness Wadia, on the other hand, hugged every member of the Punjab Kings squad.
Hardik Pandya left heartbroken
While Punjab Kings celebrated, the Mumbai Indians camp was left heartbroken following the loss in Qualifier 2 of the IPL 2025 season. As soon as Ashwani was hit for a maximum on the final ball of the 19th over, skipper Hardik Pandya was left dejected and he fell to the ground, simply thinking what might have been.
Hardik had to be consoled by Jasprit Bumrah. After minutes of being down, the Mumbai skipper got up and went up to the Punjab Kings camp to shake their hands.
Even Mumbai Indians owners Nita and Akash Ambani were left disappointed as the duo sported sorry faces following the loss.
Speaking of the contest between Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians, the match started after a delay of more than 2 hours following rain at the Narendra Modi Stadium.
Put into bat first, Mumbai Indians posted 203/8 in the 20 overs. However, the total did not prove to be enough as PBKS chased it down with six balls to spare, following Shreyas’ match-winning knock.
Punjab Kings will now face RCB in the IPL 2025 final on Tuesday, June 3 at the Narendra Modi Stadium.