Iyer and Hardik fined after both teams go slow in IPL 2025 Qualifier 2

Both Shreyas Iyer and Hardik Pandya were fined after their teams, Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Mumbai Indians (MI) respectively, maintained slow over-rates during their IPL 2025 Qualifier 2 face-off in Ahmedabad on Sunday night.

The game got off to a late start because of unseasonal rain in Ahmedabad just after the toss, which brought into effect the tweaked playing conditions of the tournament, allowing two hours of additional time to complete a full game, but the slow over-rates ended up pushing the finish time further.

As it was PBKS' second over-rate offence of the season, Iyer was fined INR 24 lakh, while Hardik, for his team's third such offence, was fined INR 30 lakh. The rest of the members of the PBKS playing group were each fined either INR 6 lakh or 25% of their respective match fees, whichever is lesser, while those numbers went up to INR 12 lakh and 50% for MI.

Despite this being MI's third over-rate offence, Hardik will not have to serve a suspension, as he had to at the end of IPL 2024, which forced him to miss the first match of IPL 2025, since that rule was amended ahead of the ongoing season.

PBKS rode on Iyer's 41-ball 87 not out to knock MI out of the tournament, and took them to their first IPL final since 2014, where they will meet Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) on June 3. With neither PBKS nor RCB - both in the mix since the inaugural season in 2008 - having won the tournament to date, we will have a new IPL champion come Tuesday night.