Maxwell's misfortune mounts with new injury, Punjab win again

A fractured finger appears to have brought an end to Glenn Maxwell's ill-starred Indian Premier League season, but fellow Australian Josh Inglis has helped Punjab Kings continue to flourish without him.

The news of Maxwell's seeming campaign-ending injury for the Ricky Ponting-coached Kings was revealed by his Australian teammate Marcus Stoinis before Punjab went on to record a four-wicket victory that sent MS Dhoni's hapless Chennai Super Kings outfit spinning out of the tournament.

"He broke his finger just before the last game at training. He didn't think it was too bad, but it ended up getting pretty bad. He had scans and the results weren't great," explained 36-year-old Maxwell's fellow allrounder on Wednesday. 

"So unfortunately for Maxi, I think it's likely he's out for the tournament." 

Kings' skipper Shreyas Iyer called the injury "unfortunate", but suggested the Kings had "a variety of players who can win you matches".

And he was proved right as Yuzvendra Chahal conjured up a second IPL hat-trick as they consigned Chennai to a fifth defeat of the season at their yellow-festooned Chepauk fortress.

Punjab had waited patiently for Maxwell to deliver one of his mad masterpieces only to be disappointed as he recorded scores of 0, 30, 1, 3, 7 and 7 - a total of 48 off six knocks at a most un-Maxwell-like strike rate of 97.95.

It was his second dismal season in a row with the bat in India after mustering only 52 in nine innings in 2024.

Still, Ponting's men proved good enough without him as another of the Kings' Australian contingent Inglis, with a run-a-ball six not out, and South African quick Marco Jansen, who inside-edged the winning four off the fourth ball of the final over, edged them past their target on 6-194.

Half-centuries from Iyer (72) and opening batter Prabhsimran Singh (54) had earlier given Punjab the impetus in the chase as they moved second in the table on 13 points.

Leg-spinner Chahal picked up all four of his wickets in the penultimate over to finish with 4-32 as Chennai, put in, were bowled out for 190 in the final over.

Dhoni had crashed Chahal for a straight six first ball in the 19th over before holing out at long off the next. Then the leggie dismissed Deepak Hooda, Anshul Kamboj and Khaleel Ahmed off the last three balls for his hat-trick, the first in the IPL 2025 and the first by anyone against Chennai.

Sam Curran was Chennai's mainstay, the England allrounder smiting 88 off 47 balls but it was not enough to rescue their dismal campaign.

In the chase, the fielding highlight came from South African Dewald Brevis, whose boundary-line juggle received plenty of praise.

For Ponting, though, the play-offs loom in his successful first year as Kings' coach after moving following a seven-year stint at Delhi Capitals.

His players all seem to swear by the 50-year-old's guidance, with Iyer revealing how he set the tone for their chase with his mid-innings team talk.

"Ricky came in and said 'we have to up the ante and not leave it to the end as they have great death bowlers'. So the approach was to just take on the bowlers with the power-hitters and back ourselves down the order."