Tilak Varma (75 n.o., 33b, 6×4, 6×6) kept up with a mounting asking rate, stood till the end, and took the Mumbai Indians to a six-wicket victory over the Punjab Kings in IPL 2026 at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala on Thursday (May 14, 2026).

For a second straight game, PBKS squandered a defence from a winning position, which extended its losing run to five games and delivered a gut punch to its playoffs hopes.

Turning it around

The home side was the favourite with five overs left and MI needing 72 runs. But MI truly started believing after Tilak and Sherfane Rutherford hit Yuzvendra Chahal for 20 runs in the 16th over, which included an inventive switch hit past short fine leg.

Tilak added another 16 in boundaries in a 22-run 18th over bowled by Marco Jansen that nudged Mumbai even closer. He started with a pummel over midwicket for six before depositing two hits past the pacer for 10 runs.

Will Jacks hit sixes off the first balls of the penultimate and final overs and eased the pressure on Tilak.

With eight needed off the last three balls, the southpaw duly hit two successive sixes to seal the chase. Ryan Rickelton had handed Mumbai the ideal start with a 23-ball 48.

Late charge

In the first innings, PBKS had to strive hard for its 200 for eight and got there only because of Azmatullah Omarzai’s late assault.

Shardul Thakur’s hit-the-deck approach got him four for 39, and sent the Kings’ innings into a tailspin. The host lost six wickets for 33 runs off 30 deliveries through the middle overs and even faced the prospect of being bowled out.

Flurry of boundaries

But Omarzai picked Shardul and Corbin Bosch over mid-wicket for boundaries before getting 18 off Deepak Chahar in the 18th over to change the course of the innings. Earlier, Prabhsimran Singh made the most of two reprieves, on five and 28, to set Punjab a solid platform with his 32-ball 57.

But Shardul dragged MI back with his four wickets, which was vital in restricting the Kings.

Indian batting superstar Virat Kohli says he is not immune to the anxiety that comes with performance pressure, admitting that consecutive ducks in the last couple of IPL matches had left him a bit nervous.

The 37-year-old roared back to form on Wednesday (May 13, 2026) night with an unbeaten 105 off 60 balls as his team Royal Challengers Bengaluru defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets to climb to the top of the IPL table.

It was a record-extending ninth IPL hundred for Kohli as he went past Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma to become the player with most appearances (279) in the tournament. It was also his first IPL century since the 2024 season.

“The fact that I didn’t get many runs in the last two games was, it eats me up in a way that I know I can play well and I’m hitting the ball well,” Kohli told the broadcaster after he was adjudged the Player of the Match.

“But then, when you don’t carry on and you know (that) you haven’t created the impact for the team, it bothers you because that’s basically been the goal all these years… trying to improve so that you can be the best version for your team when you play out there and make an impact,” he added.

Kohli admitted that he was a bit uneasy after being dismissed for ducks in the previous two outings, but also asserted that failures like these also play a role in a player’s growth.

“The celebration (after completing the century) was not a big one because we know the importance of the points. It is a conscious effort to contribute more to the team,” Kohli said.

“There is a reason people say pressure is a privilege — it keeps you humble. Good pressure always helps you improve your game. A couple of games that do not go your way, you feel a bit of nervousness and that helps you.

“It takes a lot of effort, but it helps your game go up. Those failures are so important because that puts you in a place to get back (to where you have been and do what has got you there),” he added.

The former India captain also said that he did not try anything extravagant and backed his natural game by picking the right lengths and finding the gaps consistently.

“… just (focused on) my positions at the crease, not doing anything extravagant and backing my game. Picking length, hitting the gaps (that) I can hit. (I am) happy I was able to back my game,” said Kohli.

On extending his record tally of IPL centuries to nine, Kohli said he would continue to challenge himself while competing at the highest level.

“I just love batting…What an honour (it is) to be competing at this level and against the very best still. (I) just give my heart and soul out there because it is going to finish one day,” Kohli stated, reiterating his love for the game.

“(I) want to make the most of it, and look forward to pressure situations, where I am feeling a bit of heat and then I challenge myself to just go for it.”

He also stressed on the power of sport in building individual character.

“Even after all these years, it is the love for the game. I just love hitting the ball in the middle of the bat. That joy is still there and it is all God’s grace, and I am thankful and grateful,” he added.

RCB skipper Rajat Patidar, meanwhile, said he was pleased that the defending champions had moved to the top of the table with 16 points, displacing Gujarat Titans.

“It feels great. You play well in the tournament and everyone came in the different stage and doing their job for the team. We are taking it one game and one step at a time,” Patidar said.

“Very satisfied (with the win). After 10 overs, the way we controlled their innings…to restrict them (to 192 after their start) is a good sign for us,” he added.

Punjab Kings will be desperate for a turnaround against Mumbai Indian when the two teams meet at the HPCA Stadium here on Thursday.

After leading the standings for nearly four weeks, PBKS slumped to fourth place on the back of four straight defeats. Another slip-up will leave it in a scrap for the final Playoffs spot.

Fifties from Shreyas Iyer and Priyansh Arya against Delhi Capitals were reminiscent of the batting flourish that was the backbone of Punjab Kings’ early success. But its bowling lapses continue to cost it.

PBKS leaked 73 runs off four overs at the death against the Capitals, and has the worst economy rate in this phase this season (11.66).

The silver lining, though, has been Arshdeep Singh delivering again up front. He has three wickets at an economy of 8.15 in the last three games after a horrid run which got him just four wickets in eight games before that.

“Arshdeep is a terrific cricketer. And these big cricketers rise at the right moment. I think now is the right time and our coach Ricky Ponting always speaks of peaking at the right time, at the back end of the tournament,” Punjab Kings’ assistant bowling coach Trevor Gonsalves said.

Odds would favour Punjab to get its act together against a Mumbai Indians side that is already out of the reckoning for the Playoffs.

Its listless run was already a mood dampener this season, and MI has been handed another cruel blow with stand-in captain Suryakumar Yadav unavailable for the game.

The best chance MI has of getting out of its rut is to take on the misfiring Punjab bowlers. Ryan Rickelton and Rohit Sharma have nailed their role in setting the pace this year, adding 380 runs in six innings at a run rate of 11.76.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Rajat Patidar won the toss and opted to field against Kolkata Knight Riders in their Indian Premier League match in Raipur on Wednesday (May 13, 2026).

The toss was delayed because of a wet outfield following rain, but despite the interruption, no overs were lost under the revised match conditions.

The toss finally took place at 8.30 p.m. local time, with the match scheduled to begin at 8.45 p.m. after a delay of at least one hour and 15 minutes.

RCB replaced Romario Shepherd with Venkatesh Iyer while KKR also made one change, bringing in Saurabh Dubey in place of spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who is out of the game due to a niggle.

Teams:

RCB: Jacob Bethell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (c), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Krunal Pandya, Tim David, Venkatesh Iyer, Rasikh Salam, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Jacob Duffy.

KKR: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Cameron Green, Rinku Singh, Manish Pandey, Rovman Powell, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Kartik Tyagi, Vaibhav Arora.

With no wins in its first six games, Kolkata Knight Riders looked to be headed for a fight to avoid the wooden spoon in IPL 2026. But four wins in a row have brought the franchise’s playoff charge back to life.

Ahead of the contest against Royal Challengers Bengaluru here, assistant coach Shane Watson said it was expected that the team would need some bedding-in time after significant changes to its squad from last year.

“It was always going to take a bit of time to work out where everyone was going to fit into the squad, because there was quite a bit of turnover from last season with the players we got at the auction. Now, we’ve got more of an understanding of what really works for us,” Watson said on Tuesday.

Ace spinner Varun Chakaravarthy, who has regained his mojo in the second part of the campaign, was seen wearing a protective boot in visuals on social media. Watson said the bowler was playing through some discomfort and is being monitored closely by the team.

“He was a bit sore in the second last game and was in a lot of pain in the last one, even though he’s still bowling incredibly well. We’ve got our fingers crossed that he’ll be available for tomorrow [Wednesday], but we’re just not exactly sure,” the coach explained.

Watson also confirmed that Sri Lanka pacer Matheesha Pathirana was fit and was not featuring in the playing twelve only due to the already settled overseas combination.

In an action-packed tournament like the IPL where matches come thick and fast, teams hardly have time to rest on glory or dwell on defeats.

Hence, it did not come as a surprise when Punjab Kings spin-bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule emphasised that the struggling side should not “brood over” recent losses.

“Obviously, everyone is disappointed, but we cannot overthink and overanalyse. In a couple of days’ time, we will be playing Mumbai Indians here (on Thursday). It is important to take the learnings from this game,” Bahutule said after Delhi Capitals handed PBKS its fourth defeat on the bounce on Monday.

“We will certainly look into phases of our bowling and the fielding part. We almost had the game [in the bag], but we did not execute the skills in the last five overs. If we had taken the two catches, DC may not have reached the target,” he added.

Although nothing seems to be going right for Kings, Bahutule remained positive about Shreyas Iyer and his men turning the corner.

“We are still in the hunt to qualify [for the playoffs]. There are going to be a lot of ups and downs. We have to put these (losses) behind us and move ahead,” said Bahutule.

Madhav was in the ‘zone’

Among those who rubbed salt into the wound was young Capitals all-rounder Madhav Tiwari. The 22-year-old, making his first appearance of the season, crucially struck twice with the ball before acing the chase with an unbeaten eight-ball 18.

“I just tried to control my nerves and do the basics well (while batting). I was in the zone and wanted to win. We (Ashutosh Sharma and him) had a clear understanding of what was needed. The ball was coming onto the bat nicely, and we felt quite comfortable.”

The 211-run pursuit was indeed comfortable in the end.

World Cup winning former India head coach Rahul Dravid said the grammar of T20 batting has undergone a complete metamorphosis of late and bowlers have some serious “catching up to do.”

Dravid, who guided India to its second T20 World Cup triumph in 2024 in the Caribbean, is marvelled at how the young guns like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre, Priyansh Arya along with world’s No. 1 ranked T20 batter Abhishek Sharma have entirely changed the approach in the Powerplay overs.

“In a sense, to see the quality of batting that has happened over the last two or three years, I think the bowlers in that format of the game will slowly have to do some catching up,” Dravid told PTI in an exclusive interview from Dublin, where he was unveiled as the owner of European T20 Premier League (ETPL)’s Dublin franchise.

The former India skipper and one of India’s most respected coaches raved about how batters are now hitting boundaries to parts of the ground which earlier seemed out of bounds.

“I think batsmanship and the ability to hit sixes and to access different parts of the ground has certainly improved leaps and bounds.

“Bowlers will have to keep working on their skills and keep developing. I am sure, some of them will be able to still stand out and hold their own,” said Dravid, who has coached IPL teams like Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals.

However, he had no hesitation in admitting modern batters have adapted to the requirements of the T20 game better than the bowlers. However, Dravid was confident of a change.

“I think if you look at it in terms of balance, probably a lot more batsmen are able to cope with the requirements of the modern T20 game than, say, some of the bowlers have been able to at this point of time. That may change in two or three years,” he added.

The scenario is, however, a bit different in Test matches where bowlers have had the upper hand in consistently producing result-oriented games.

“I mean, if you look at Test cricket today, nearly every Test match produces a result. So, I think bowlers are probably holding the sway in some of the Test matches that we are seeing.”

“You know, two-day matches, three-day matches. So, bowlers have started holding the sway in Test cricket.”

“So, it will be interesting to see over the next couple of years if bowlers are able to pull this back a little bit in T20s,” Dravid said.

But is it possible for bowlers to pull things back if the pitches are as flat as they have been in recent times? Dravid agreed that some help is needed for the bowlers.

“They may need a little bit of support, and I think the way is probably to have a little more challenging wickets to ensure that there is something in it for the bowlers, whether it is the tracks that turn or whether it is a little bit more pace and bounce that gives the bowlers a little bit more of a chance.”

“Because I don’t think we can increase the size of the boundaries and already there is no space to go and increase the size of the boundaries,” Dravid put forth his take.

Asked if two bouncers per over could be a logical solution, Dravid didn’t want to get into specifics.

“I mean, I think anything that might make it a little bit more…give the bowlers a little bit more of a chance. But I still think that in the next couple of years we may see bowlers bounce back a little bit and start getting a little bit more of a swing.”

“There is always this balance, and there are times when the bat holds the sway as we are seeing at the moment in white ball cricket and maybe in red ball cricket we are seeing the ball hold the sway a little bit.”

But Dravid also doesn’t want the game to be too skewed in favour of either batters or bowlers.

“I think at some stage we don’t want the balance to be too skewed either way, either on the side of the batsmen or the side of the bowlers,” he said.

A team with an imposing batting line-up comprising Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran and Rishabh Pant can send shivers down the spine of any bowling unit. Yet, Lucknow Super Giants endured a forgettable IPL 2026 campaign, getting eliminated after a loss to Chennai Super Kings in its 11th game.

As has been the case throughout the tournament, LSG’s batting fortunes nosedived after a blistering start provided by Josh Inglis, another power-hitter in the team’s armoury in Sunday’s game against CSK.

Tom Moody, LSG’s director of cricket, admitted that inconsistent batting performances, particularly in the middle order, hurt the team this season, saying the side repeatedly failed to build on strong starts and finish innings strongly.

“If we look at our season from a broad lens, I think our batting has let us down, particularly our middle order. It hasn’t shown the consistency that’s required to have success consistently… our batting hasn’t fired, so we’re exposed down the back-end of the innings.”

He also spoke about the impact of injuries and unavailable players on the team balance, especially the absence of Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga.

“Hasaranga was a significant miss for us because he was a really important key to the puzzle of how we were trying to stack up as a side. He offered that point of difference with a mystery spinner and also depth at No. 8.”

Punjab Kings has gone into freefall. In the IPL 2026 fixture at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala on Monday (May 11, 2026), it was Delhi Capitals’ turn to upstage Kings, coming up trumps by three wickets.

Chasing 211 in favourable conditions to condemn PBKS to its fourth successive defeat, DC was poor at the beginning of its pursuit and lost the top three within the fifth over. But Capitals had skipper Axar Patel and David Miller to thank as the left-handed batters haunted their former franchise with match-influencing half-centuries.

Poor fielding and mediocre execution with the ball once again let Kings down. The host was severely punished for handing a reprieve to Axar, who saw Suryansh Shedge spill a tough chance off Ben Dwarshuis when he was on 25.

The 32-year-old never let the run-rate pressure get to him, taking special liking to left-arm pacers Dwarshuis and Marco Jansen. He stitched a vital 64-run fifth-wicket alliance with Miller before the South African put the visitor on the cusp of victory.

When Marcus Stoinis halted Axar’s progress in the last ball of the 14th over, Capitals still had work to do. Miller, with assistance from Ashutosh Sharma and Madhav Tiwari, did enough to guide his side to victory with an over to spare. The contest was as good as over after Ashutosh and Madhav combined to smash Stoinis for 19 runs in the 18th over.

The groundwork for the win was laid by the DC pacers, who engineered a comeback that proved key in the end. Auqib Nabi’s miserly effort in the PowerPlay, late strikes from Mitchell Starc and Madhav’s two-fer were worth their weight in gold despite good knocks from PBKS opening batter Priyansh Arya and Shreyas Iyer.

The away team fought back once it found the right lengths and variations which were effective on the track. While Mukesh Kumar drew first blood by dismissing Prabhsimran Singh and breaking a 78-run alliance, Madhav sent back Priyansh, who found Sahil Parakh at sweeper-cover.

The persistent effort of the fast bowlers, who sent down all the overs, helped restrict PBKS to 210 for five even after the home side blazed to 51 without loss in three overs. Those small actions had a big impact.