IPL 2026: Batsmen made ‘table topper’, bowling is increasing Punjab’s tension, will have to do this work for playoffs

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans Highlights: The excitement kept increasing till the last moment in the match between former champions Gujarat Titans and this year’s table topper Punjab Kings. In the last over of the match, Gujarat needed 11 runs to win, at the same time 28-year-old left-handed all-rounder Arshad Khan from Bihar led the team to victory. Arshad batted brilliantly and along with Washington led the team to victory by hitting a four on Marcus Stoinis. Last week too, Punjab had lost to Rajasthan by 6 wickets in Chandigarh and now Gujarat also strengthened its position in the playoff race by defeating Punjab by 4 wickets.

This defeat of Punjab also put the team’s position in the top table in trouble. Punjab Kings has to play the next match with Hyderabad. This match is also going to be challenging for Punjab. After that, matches are also to be held on a pitch considered to be fast like Dharamshala. In such a situation, it will be interesting to see the performance of the team in the coming times.

Winning trend continues in power play

Former Test cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra, during his commentary on Star Sports, says that 80 percent of the matches in this tournament have been won by the team which has won the powerplay. This has been the story of the tournament so far. Punjab team scored 35 runs by losing 3 wickets in the powerplay against Gujarat, while Gujarat scored 58 runs by losing 1 wicket. The trend of winning in the powerplay continued here also. The power hitter opener pair of Punjab Kings is excellent, but the road for the team is not going to be easy.

Not a single bowler in the top 10

Amidst the excellent performance of the openers and batsmen, the team’s bowling is worrying. Not a single bowler from Punjab is included in the top 10 bowlers. Talking about this season of IPL, no bowler from Punjab has been able to make it to the top 10 in the list of bowlers who have bowled more than 10 overs. The team’s main bowler Arshdeep Singh has so far remained at 13th position with 10 wickets and an economy of 10.4.

Vijay Kumar is at 23rd position with an economy of 10.4 and 8 wickets, while Marco Jansson is at 36th position with an economy of 9.2 with 6 wickets. That is, the batsmen of Punjab Kings have been continuously exposing the spendthriftiness of their bowlers on the basis of their batting.

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The batsmen showed their strength

The brilliant performance of Punjab’s openers Prabhsimran Singh (361 runs at a strike rate of 175 in 9 matches) and Priyansh Arya (285 runs at a strike rate of 248 in 8 matches) have played an important role in the team’s victory. If we look at the strike rate, Priyansh is on top, while his fellow opener Prabhasimran is also in the top 20.