New Delhi: When Punjab Kings began their IPL 2026 campaign, they were a team in tearing hurry, determined to get the unfinished business done. Losing to Royal Challengers Bengaluru in last year’s final had left them feeling that they had let slip a huge opportunity after an impressive run. It also left them as the only original franchise from the inaugural 2008 season, besides Delhi Capitals (Daredevils), whose painful wait to win the Indian Premier League (IPL) continues.
Shreyas Iyer had led Kolkata Knight Riders to the 2024 title before joining forces with head coach Ricky Ponting. The brilliant start to the current campaign set them up as the team to beat as they went seven games unbeaten. They won six, and it could well have been a sweet seven but for rain forcing abandonment against a struggling Kolkata Knight Riders in their third outing.
The victory procession halted on April 25, and since then PBKS have lost four games in a row to be stuck on 13 points. They have slipped from the top perch, and after the defeat to Delhi Capitals on Monday night, they are hanging on to the fourth and last spot for playoffs. With the final league games fast approaching, they are under pressure to halt the current slide.
The schedule ahead is challenging. Their last league games are against Mumbai Indians, RCB and Lucknow Super Giants. In the IPL, there are no easy opponents, a lesson even the high-flyers learn every season. Thus MI and LSG too can hurt.
The defeat to Capitals in hilly Dharamsala brought out two things about PBKS. Despite the excellent start provided by opener Priyansh Arya, a set Shreyas Iyer could not find enough boundaries to push the total beyond 210. Between overs 6-16, PBKS didn’t have one over that went for more than 10 runs, most were single-digit overs. After Arya lashed six sixes early on, only seven more were scored in the rest of the innings.
A robust finisher was missed in Dharamsala. In the earlier meeting between the teams, Punjab Kings had chased down the 265-run target set by DC. But this time Delhi’s all-pace ploy worked well overall in the mildly seaming conditions—PBKS too adopted the tactic, using only pacers.
DC spearhead Mitchell Starc proved too crafty for Marcus Stoinis and Shashank Singh, dismissing them off successive deliveries. The two had been expected to go after the bowling in the final overs. The last five overs fetched a par score of 61 runs, but only 77 came between overs seven and 15 and surprisingly there was no one to go all out. It also showed an uncertainty about what the par score would be.
And when DC’s chase looked a touch shaky towards the end, PBKS had only Yash Thakur and Ben Dwarshuis to fall back on, and their lack of experience was exploited by the batters.
The dropped catches also hurt them.
Two chances were grassed on Monday, one off Axar Patel, the DC skipper who went on to score a 30-ball 56. It is a season of dropped catches and PBKS spin bowling coach, Sairaj Bahutule, acknowledged it hurt the team. “Again, today unfortunately we dropped a few catches at the crucial time. We will reflect, but again, no time for us to really brood over it,” he said after the game.
Playoffs battle
The race to qualify for the playoffs is gathering pace and PBKS will be worried. With the top six teams in the points table to play only three games, the run-in to the playoffs is likely to be a tense affair. (Sunrisers Hyderabad, second, and Gujarat Titans, third, face-off on Tuesday night and the winner will go top of the table.) RCB head the table on 14 points, but are ahead only on net run rate and will at least temporarily cede the top spot.
PBKS, fourth currently on 13 points, are far from safe with Chennai Super Kings, stirring after a poor start to the season, as well as Rajasthan Royals are on 12 points and within striking distance of playoff spots.
The end-of-season momentum can be very useful, infusing clarity into the decision-making process. Gujarat Titans won four games in a row going into Tuesday’s SRH tie while RCB have largely bounced back after every loss.
