The Punjab Kings (PBKS) were riding high in the IPL 2025 tournament with 5 victories in their opening 7 games before coming to a halt with defeat at the hands of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). A rain-drenched tie against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) pushed their standing down to fifth place on the points table. Ten days down the line, Shreyas Iyer came back with a bang. PBKS won their match against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at MA Chidambaram Stadium and dethroned the Delhi Capitals, Gujarat Titans, and Mumbai Indians to claim the second place in the standings. The composed captaincy of Captain Shreyas Iyer brought with it an incredible knock to chase down a target of 191 runs. The opening partnership of Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh laid down a quick start for the team. And by the time when Shreyas took guard, PBKS was already up at 44 runs in just 4.4 overs. At first, Prabhsimran played the supporting role and then kicked it into high gear as Shreyas began going well. At half-time, PBKS were needing just 101 runs but had lost only one of their wickets in the chase. The batting depth stretched as far down as number 10, and it looked a trivial task. Prabhsimran played steady along with Shreyas until around the 13th over. He then scored his third half-century of the season before getting caught, leaving PBKS needing just 75 runs. Shreyas made good by driving himself forward towards the fifty mark at the close of the 14th over. Even after the fall of Nehal Wadhera, Shreyas kept up the intensity. He blasted Matheesha Pathirana during the 17th over as Shashank Singh tackled Noor Ahmad and Ravindra Jadeja. The equation shifted from 52 off 30 to just 6 running with 12 remaining. Shashank fell, and though Shreyas too followed him back trying to hit it big, Josh Inglis held firm. CSK somehow dragged the match into the final over. Suryansh Shedge mistimed one in the air, but in the end, PBKS sealed it three balls to spare with five wickets in hand. Read also: BCCI's Robo Dog 'Champak' Triggers Legal Row with Magazine A real hammer blow it was for Dhoni and his CSK side. They needed to win every game they had left to keep their playoff hopes alive. The best they could've done before PBKS with 5 matches left was to grab 14 points. Since 2022, the first time 14 points has been enough to qualify has been when the league expanded to 10 teams. With this defeat, any sway CSK had in its playoff run has now gone awry. Their 4 remaining wins can take them only to 12 points, which is a point number already reached or surpassed by five other teams in contention-with 21 group matches still to play. CSK is now out of the race.