‘Lack of confidence in Indian players’; - Former IPL winner slams PBKS’ decision-making vs KKR

Match number 44 in the Indian Premier League (IPL) ended without a result after persistent rain meant that the game was called off. Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) split the points. Former IPL winner Manoj Tiwary took to X and slammed PBKS’ management for their decision-making during the game. 

The former India batter wrote, “My gut feeling says that Punjab team will not be able to win the IPL trophy this season because what I saw today when they were batting was, the coach didn’t send Indian inform batters Nehal Wadhera and Shashank Singh, instead he trusted his foreign players to deliver, but they couldn’t and clearly showed lack of confidence in Indian players down the order. If he persists in this way then the title is far from them irrespective of their qualification in top two.”

My gut feeling says that punjab team will not be able to win the #IPL trophy this season because what I saw today when they were batting was, the coach didn’t send Indian inform batters Nehal wadera and Shasank singh, instead he trusted his foreign players to deliver, but they…

— MANOJ TIWARY (@tiwarymanoj) April 26, 2025

It was Shreyas Iyer who won the toss and chose to bat first and saw his team score 201 runs on the board. Priyansh Arya batted well to hit 69 off just 35 balls, while Prabhsimran Singh scored 89 runs. At one stage, PBKS were placed at 158 runs after 14 overs but KKR bowlers did a remarkable job in the death overs to restrict PBKS to 201 runs. 

PBKS skipper Iyer came out to bat at number three and this was followed by Glenn Maxwell batting at four. The Australian star was dismissed by Varun Chakravarthy in the 17th over, while Marco Jansen fell for three runs. Josh Inglis came out at bat number six and scored 11 not out from just six balls with two hits to the fence. 

Exciting encounter ends in a damp squib

Just one over was possible in KKR’s chase, with the home team scoring seven runs before the game was called off. The players were taken off the park as huge winds were followed by a heavy downpour. With 11 points from nine matches, PBKS are now fourth in the table. A win for either Mumbai or Lucknow could see PBKS slide out of the playoff places once more. 

Kolkata, on the other hand, has to win all its games now to make it to the playoffs. Vaibhav Arora was the best bowler for KKR with two wickets for 34 runs from his four overs. Arora got the key wicket of Prabhsimran Singh for 89 and then dismissed Marco Jansen in the penultimate over of the innings.