Never in his T20 career has Quinton de Kock faced defeat after scoring a century. On Thursday, he did, but Punjab Kings thrashed Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets to ruin the party. De Kock’s 112-run knock did not help as a dip in the Acceleration Band (13-16) had Mumbai cornered. Punjab blazed through the same period, and as a result, they chased down a 196-run target with 21 balls to spare, thanks to Prabhsimran Singh (80 off 38) and Shreyas Iyer (35-ball 66). The win helped them top the IPL 2026 Points Table with 9 points from 5 matches.
Punjab Kings were ahead in every phase of the game in a chase of 196. Even as they lost wickets, their batters kept hammering. Poor bowling from Mumbai’s pace attack helped them in their cause as well.
Punjab Kings needed a fast start, and they got that from Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Gill. Before Arya fell in the third over, he already smashed 15 off 9. Allah Ghazanfar struck in the powerplay again as he dismissed Cooper Connolly in the 5th over. But those wickets did not matter as Punjab already had 52 runs on board after an early assault on Deepak Chahar by Arya. Punjab ended the powerplay with 61/2, ahead of Mumbai by 13 runs, with a better Entry Velocity.
Mumbai Indians had a poor start as they were sent to bat. Arshdeep Singh ended his powerplay wickets drought and dismissed Ryan Rickleton and Suryakumar Yadav in consecutive deliveries of the 3rd over. But Naman Dhir and Quinton de Kock managed to rescue quickly, ending the first phase with 48/2 at 8 runs an over.
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