Sanjay Manjrekar opened up on the chances of Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings qualifying for the Qualifier 1 when they take on each other in the 69th match of the IPL 2025 on May 26 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. While the team that wins will qualify for Qualifier 1, the losing team will be forced to play the Eliminator.
Manjrekar felt the batting lineup of the Punjab Kings is good and fairly organized. However, he was worried about their bowling due to the absence of an injured Yuzvendra Chahal. Manjrekar claimed that bowling Azmatullah Omarzai and Marcus Stoinis at the death would not help a team in close matches and believed PBKS had to work on it.
“Punjab Kings’ batting looks good — that’s one area that’s fairly organised. Bowling is the worry. Let’s hope Chahal gets fit quickly because when you have someone like Omarzai bowling the 18th over and Stoinis the 20th, you leave yourself open to being defeated in tight matches. That’s an area they really need to work on,” said Manjrekar on Star Sports.
Fight for a spot in Qualifier 1 spices up the last two league matches
The match between PBKS and MI will decide whether they play in Qualifier 1 or Eliminator. For the team playing Qualifier 1, there would be a second chance to qualify for the final, if they fail to win it. For the team playing in the Eliminator, a loss would mean the end of the road. Hence, PBKS vs MI will be a very important match.
With just two matches to go before the Playoffs, the positions of the teams in the points table have not been decided yet. Even after the penultimate match of the season, the positions of the Titans and the Royal Challengers will be uncertain, as it will be decided based on the latter’s result against LSG on Tuesday, May 27.
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