PBKS vs MI IPL 2025: On the face of it, Mumbai Indians’ quest to add a sixth IPL trophy to the five they already have has hit a major snag. When Mumbai Indians (MI) faced Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Monday (May 26), they knew that a win would put them in Qualifier 1, while a defeat would mean they had to contest the Eliminator. Punjab proved too good, easily reeling in a target of 185, which means Mumbai will finish fourth on the IPL 2025 points table.
Qualifier vs Eliminator
Teams that finish third or fourth essentially have to play a quarter-final, a semi-final and a final to win the IPL. Each game in the playoffs is a knockout one for them. And it is played against the absolute best teams of that year. That is not all. They have to play these three games in the space of five days, at two different venues.
Since the playoff system was introduced in IPL 2011, the only team that has successfully done it are the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2016. In every year since then, the winner has come from one of the teams that have finished in the top two.
You can see why that is so. The odds are dramatically stacked against the two teams playing in the Eliminator. That is the price to be paid to ensure the top two teams have better chances of reaching the final, and it’s a fair one. After all, if you finish in the top two in the world’s most competitive and high-quality cricket league, you have earned the favourable odds.
But with Mumbai losing to Punjab, those are the odds they must now fight against. The question is: can they?
The firepower to overcome history
So far in the IPL, even Mumbai have never won the title when they have finished outside the top two. But this year may be their best bet to overturn history.
In addition to the natural disadvantages of working your way up to the title from the Eliminator, Mumbai will also have to contend with losing Ryan Rickelton and Will Jacks (alongwith Corbin Bosch) for the playoffs.
Almost unnoticed, Rickelton has been Mumbai’s second-best batter this season. Suryakumar Yadav, of course, has hit a stratospheric level, but even with his remarkable gifts, it is difficult for just one man to win games solo. The support SKY needed has come most often from Rickelton’s bat. He is Mumbai’s second-highest run-getter this season. Losing him will be a crucial blow.
But it could also be an opportunity. Mumbai’s strength on paper this season has been from an Indian core that is unmatched by any other team. Of that Indian core, only SKY and the ever-remarkable genius of Jasprit Bumrah have been consistent. But that also means there is an opportunity for Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Tilak Varma, Naman Dhir, Deepak Chahar, and others to step up. And outside that, there’s Trent Boult and Mitchell Santner too. They have all had their moments, but have not been consistent enough. However, their underlying quality cannot be denied. It is because of the pedigree of the personnel they have that Mumbai remain dangerous. Every team in the playoffs will have lost some players. Mumbai might be the one that can absorb those losses best.
What Mumbai Indians need
IPL 2025 has shown that even when the playoff spots were decided the earliest they had ever been, nothing about the tournament could be taken for granted. The teams that had qualified lost one after the other to teams that were out of the race.
It is not surprising because T20 is exactly that kind of volatile format. That volatility is in full effect in a tournament like the IPL, where the auction ensures teams are always on a level playing field, more or less. Quality on paper translates to results on the field, sometimes later than sooner.
If this were the start of the tournament, and Mumbai had their available personnel now, they would still be favoured to win most games against other teams. That is the conviction they need, and they could still be a dangerous foe for the other playoff teams.