Punjab Kings, who missed the title in IPL 2025, have started the new season with a thrilling win. Punjab, captained by Shreyas Iyer, defeated Gujarat Titans by 3 wickets in a tightly contested match in their first match in IPL 2026. At their home ground in Mullanpur, Punjab achieved the target of 163 runs in the last over on the basis of an excellent half-century by young batsman Cooper Connolly and lethal bowling by veteran spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. This was Cooper Connolly’s debut match in IPL and the 22 year old young player played an unbeaten inning of 72 runs.
Deadly bowling of Vaishak-Chahal
The result of this match was once again the same as the last three matches of this season. The team that bowled first after winning the toss won again. But this time this victory was not achieved so easily. Punjab Kings captain shreyas iyer Also won the toss and bowled first and the way Gujarat captain Shubman Gill made a stormy start, this decision appeared to be wrong for some time.
But then Punjab bowlers started applying the brakes and Yuzvendra Chahal (2/28) and Marco Janson (1/20) played a big role in this. Yanson took the first wicket, while Chahal gave a big success by returning Gill (39) to the pavilion. After this, other batsmen of Gujarat could not make any significant contribution. Jos Buttler (38) tried to speed up the score by waiting for some time but he also became a victim of Chahal. Vijaykumar Vaishak also played a big role in restricting Gujarat to 162 runs by taking 3 big wickets.
Connolly first took charge, then led to victory
Punjab also had a bad start and in the second over itself, Kagiso Rabada sent opener Priyansh Arya back to the pavilion. But as happened in every previous run chase, even the fall of wickets had no impact on it. Prabhsimran Singh and debutant Connolly together launched a counter attack. Together they made a partnership of 76 runs in 49 balls. After this, captain Shreyas Iyer also scored some runs quickly.
But as soon as Iyer was out in the 13th over, Gujarat suddenly made a comeback. Here Punjab lost 4 wickets in just 16 balls, out of which only pacer Prasidh Krishna (3/29) took 3 wickets. But Connolly stood firm from one end and completed his half-century in 34 balls. Connolly, first with Marco Yanson and then with Xavier Bartlett, formed a small but important partnership and led the team to victory in 19.1 overs. Connolly returned unbeaten after scoring 72 runs (5 fours, 5 sixes) in 44 balls. This is Punjab’s second consecutive win over Gujarat since last season.