Cometh the hour, cometh Shreyas Iyer

In a pre-season podcast that has recently gone viral, a Punjab Kings player is seen confidently boasting about his team's chances. "What top-4? We will finish in the top-two," Shashank Singh declares to the interviewer - even agreeing to be trolled if his prediction did not come true.

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What top-two, they finished at the very top of the table at the end of the league stage.

A fleeting hiccup in Qualifier 1 threatened to derail what had been a stellar campaign. But in that moment of truth, in Qualifier 2, Shreyas Iyer heroically led from the front, standing tall like the Rock of Gibraltar in a record chase against Mumbai Indians. Destiny had a name, and in Shreyas on Sunday night at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the IPL found its newest hero.

Shreyas’ unbeaten 87 off 41 balls might just be the knock of IPL 2025 - unless someone produces a ridiculously crazy innings in the final on Tuesday (June 3). And even then, it will take some doing to eclipse the Punjab skipper's feat. Few would have pressed on the gas when there was an exact need of it in the chase of 204. Eight sixes in an innings may not be unprecedented but smashing them in a high stakes game like the ‘semifinal’ takes some doing. He swatted them away - like flies, after walking in at 55/2 and taking his time to get his eye in before steadying the ship and calmly guiding PBKS to an all-important five-wicket win.