Punjab Kings' great journey in IPL 2025 continues and the team's performance is constantly improving under the leadership of new captain Shreyas Iyer. The team is also doing some new wonders, in which the victory in both the matches against Lucknow Super Giants this season was important. Out of this, the second win was more special because it ended the long wait of Punjab Kings. That too of 12 years. In this, 3 important decisions of the team's co-owner Preity Zinta played a big role. What are those decisions and how does the wait end, let us tell you about it.

The 54th match of IPL 2025 was played on Sunday, May 4 at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamshala. This was the first match on the Dharamshala ground this season.

This ground is the second home ground of Punjab Kings. Earlier, Punjab played its 4 home matches in Mullanpur. There too the performance of the team was full of ups and downs. But the biggest concern was about the Dharamshala ground because here the team had to face defeat in the last few matches.

Punjab won after 12 years.

But this time it did not happen. Punjab batted first and scored a brilliant score of 236 runs. In response, it stopped Lucknow Super Giants at 199 runs. In this way, the team won this match by a big margin of 37 runs registered the 7th win in the season, and secured the second position in the points table. But this victory was special because after 12 years the team was successful in winning a match in Dharamsala.

Earlier, the team defeated Mumbai Indians on this ground in 2013. However, after this, matches were not played here for many years. But in the last 2 seasons, Punjab played 4 matches in Dharamsala and lost all four.

Preity Zinta's 3 decisions, which changed the fate

The 3 decisions of the team's co-owner Preity Zinta and her management played a big role in ending Punjab's wait. The first decision was to retain Prabhsimran Singh, who was retained in the team before the mega auction by giving preference over many experienced international players. Prabhsimran has justified this decision throughout the season. In this match too, the young opener played a blistering innings of 91 runs and took the team to a big score.

The second decision was to appoint Australian legend Ricky Ponting as the head coach of the team.

Ponting was earlier with Delhi Capitals and the team's performance improved during his stay there. Especially his pairing with Shreyas Iyer was excellent earlier and it is visible this time too. Also, Ponting's advice has helped Prabhsimran to play long innings this season.

The third and most important decision was to spend Rs 26.75 crore for Shreyas Iyer. Punjab spent a huge amount on the star batsman in the mega auction and included him in their team. Kolkata Knight Riders won the title last season under Iyer's captaincy. Now Punjab is also performing brilliantly under his captaincy. Also, Iyer himself is doing wonders with the bat. In this match too, Iyer scored a blistering 45 runs in just 25 balls.

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