Punjab Kings is one of the eight franchises that made their debut in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League. They roped in former Indian superstar Yuvraj Singh as their captain in the very first season. Since then, they have been part of this cash-rich league. But unfortunately, in the last 15 editions, PBKS has not been able to win a single season of the league.
Punjab Kings have always been in the news in the league for various reasons. Something that is always there with this team is the amount of money they spent on a player at the auction. Most recently, PBKS signed Sam Curran for a whopping price of INR 18.5 crore, making him the most expensive player in the league’s history. But their record in the competition is the worst among all other IPL franchises.
PBKS has only appeared in two IPL playoffs (semi-finals). In 2014, they also competed in an IPL final. And, for the last seven seasons, this team has been unable to advance beyond the group stage, which is an unfavorable record for any IPL team. However, here we will talk about the journey for the Punjab Kings in those IPL seasons when they qualified for the playoffs.
How many times PBKS qualified for Playoffs
| Season | Group Standing | Final Standing |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 2nd out of 8 | Semi-finalists |
| 2014 | 1st out of 8 | Runners-up |
1. 2008 season – Semi-final (Playoffs)
The first three seasons saw the semi-final format in the Indian Premier League. Punjab Kings made their debut in 2008 and had a great performance. Although they started the season with two consecutive defeats at the hands of CSK and RR. But after that, Punjab won five games in a row. PBKS lost their second group game to CSK as well. But in the end, PBKS ended the group stage in second place.
They won 10 games out of 14 in the group and had 20 points on the board. Out of their four defeats, they had two against the Chennai Super Kings. But then, they face CSK once again in the semi-finals of the tournament. The team that won twice against them registered a third win in a row against PBKS to end their season in third place.
Batting first, Punjab managed only 112/8 in their inning. In reply, CSK chased down the target in 14.5 overs and made 116/1 to win the game by nine wickets. With this, Punjab’s season ended.
2. 2014 season – Runners-up
After the 2008 season, it took six seasons for the Punjab Kings to make their second playoff appearance. This time they did in 2014 season when George Bailey was the captain. PBKS had a brilliant group performance that season. They started the season with five consecutive wins. Punjab lost only three games in the group stages.
They lost two matches against the Mumbai Indians and one against the Kolkata Knight Riders. PBKS ended the group at the top with 11 wins out of 14 games and 22 points. Thus, they were the two teams to play the Qualifier 1. They faced KKR in that match and lost that game by 28 runs. As a result, they moved on to Qualifier 2, which was against the Chennai Super Kings.
However, Punjab won that game against Chennai by 24 runs to make it to their second IPL final. In the final, they locked horns with KKR once again; it was the fourth time these two teams had met in the tournament. And it also ended in favour of KKR, as they won the high-scoring match by 3 wickets to win the trophy. And PBKS ended as runners-up.