Pandya Blames Bowlers After MI's IPL 2025 Final Loss to PBKS

PBKS vs MI Highlights: Punjab Kings (PBKS) defeated Mumbai Indians (MI) by five wickets in Qualifier 2 of IPL 2025, securing their place in the final. Mumbai captain Hardik Pandya blamed his bowlers for their failure to reach the final.

PBKS vs MI Qualifier 2 Highlights: The Qualifier 2 match of the Indian Premier League 2025 (IPL 2025) was played on Sunday night at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Punjab Kings defeated Mumbai Indians by five wickets to secure their place in the final, where they will face Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday, 3 June. Mumbai Indians’ hopes of winning the title have been dashed. The pain of missing out on the IPL 2025 final was clearly visible on the face of MI captain Hardik Pandya. He blamed his bowlers for the loss and expressed his disappointment.

Blamed his bowling unit for the loss

After the match, Hardik Pandya first praised the Punjab captain. He said that the way Shreyas Iyer (श्रेयस अय्यर) batted, capitalised on his opportunities, and played his shots was truly excellent. He batted really well. I think it was an even contest, but we needed some better performances from our bowling unit, which I think really matters in these big matches.

‘Perhaps if someone had bowled at the right length…’

Pandya said that as I mentioned, they (Shreyas) were really calm, they kept us under pressure, and I think we didn’t perform the way we wanted to. I won’t put it down to the wicket. If we had to do something better, maybe someone would have bowled at the right length or maybe the right bowler at the right time, then the result could have been a little different.

A season full of grit, character, comebacks and big effort comes to a halt tonight. 💔

Thank you, Paltan for supporting us through thick & thin 💙#MumbaiIndians #PlayLikeMumbai #TATAIPL #PBKSvMI pic.twitter.com/OdQ8KaCBg1

— Mumbai Indians (@mipaltan) June 1, 2025

‘…but it didn’t happen today’

He further said that if we look back, it could have been different (maybe he should have brought Bumrah on to bowl with 41 runs needed in 4 overs), and it could have ended much earlier too. Boom (Bumrah) had a sense of the situation — that even with 18 balls left, Jassi is still Jassi and can do something special — but that didn’t happen today.