PBKS vs LSG IPL 2026 highlights: Punjab beat Lucknow by 54 runs in Mullanpur

In the end, Punjab is going to get over the line quite comfortably here. Lucknow for a while did threaten, but now they have the points in the bag, and it is just a minimising the margin exercise for Lucknow at this point. They are losing their way here are Lucknow in the tournament making changes to fix the problems that aren't there.

Nicholas Pooran is the last wicket to fall, and the bowler was Marco Jansen. It was a fuller delivery which the batter tried to hit down the ground, but ended up skying it, and Shreyas Iyer took the catch. Lucknow will need something miracalous from Mukesh and Markram to win from here.

Mitchell Marsh has fallen here. There was an interruption as Pant took some treatment to his hand, and the break in play seems to have broken Marsh's momentum of his innings. It was a tossed-up delivery there to hit, which he did, but was caught on the long-on boundary. Nicholas Pooran is the new man in still no Aiden Markram.

Rishabh Pant has started his innings superbly with a couple of sumptuous sixes, and Lucknow needs a lot more of them if they have to get closer to the target. As per Punjab, the way Lucknow are going here, they need to keep chipping away wickets; that is the only way they can create pressure. Mitchell Marsh has got his eye in and he too can be extremly dangerous.

This is a good start for LSG, both Marsh and Badoni have put on a 50-run stand, and the change seems to be working at this point. The wicket is playing so beautifully right now. Altough Punjab has got 255 runs if the teams want any surface to chase these runs this might be the pitch.

We are underway here, and Arshdeep Singh has taken the new ball alongside Xavier Bartlett. Both are very good swing bowlers up front for the Punjab Kings, and they might extract some moment, and with the form they are in the might even end up picking a few quick wickets to start with.

That is a massive total Punjab Kings have got in the first innings. Priyansh Arya and Cooper Connolley have been quite magnificent with their partnership through that innings. While Arya kept going right from ball one, Connolley started a bit slowly, and as the innings progressed, he picked up the strike rate quite nicely. As per the bowling, Lucknow did start well, but as the partnership between the two left-handers was growing, they lost their way. Prince Yadav was the pick of the bowlers for the visitors. Do join us for the second innings, we will be right back.

Marcus Stoinis is hitting some hefty blows here in the middle. The thing about Stoinis is that with the power he has got the variation of pace or length will not bother him as much, because if he middle the ball gets over the rope with easy so it becomes imperative for the bowlers to hit the yorkers consistently and one thing LSG bowlers do not have up their arsenal is a geniunine pacer and this is the pitch were having someone like Anrich Nortje would have come handy. Shami has come into the attack and is looking to bowl it away from the arc of Stoinis.

Well, Lucknow has picked up a couple of wickets since our last update, and it both the set batters first it was Connolley who fell to Prince Yadav, and then Arya missed out on his century as Siddarth scalped his wicket. This is the opportunity for Lucknow Super Giants to get back into this game. Shreyas Iyer and Marcus Stoinis have walked into the middle. While the former has been in pretty good form later has only faced 10 deliveries in the series. Also it is intresting that we have not seen a lot of slower ones from Lucknow in this game which is a little unsual. As we update, Moshin picked up Shreyas Iyer.

Connolly, too, has got to his half-century here. He did start a bit slowly, but as his innings went on, he accelerated and reached his half-century in no time. Priyansh Arya is moved into his 70s here and is playing some extraordinary shots in the middle, and the way he is going, we might see him score a century here. It is all falling apart for Lucknow Super Giants in the middle. It looked promising for them with the new ball, but it is falling apart now in the middle. Connolley has now joined the party and is playing some extraordinary shots.

There have been a couple of tactical errors which Pant has made in the last 10 minutes or so. First, he gave Moshin Khan the third over in a row in the powerplay, which went for 20 runs, and then immediately after that brought in Ayush Badoni into the attack, who is an off-spinner against the two left-handers, which tactically is a decent call, but Badoni does not have the experience of operating at this level and conceded 14 runs. This partnership is now looking pretty good for Punjab as they have put on 50-runs.

This is a good start for Lucknow Super Giants, they have been able to get swing and seam movement from the surface and have put Lucknow batters in trouble. One of Moshin Khan's deliveries thudded into the pads, which Lucknow decided not to review; however, on replay, it showed the batter was out. Lucknow, how to be careful they won't let this passage go away because once this initial seam goes away this wicket might play exceptionally well for Punjab batters. Also, Moshin Khan, since coming into the attack today after gap, has been quite superb.

It is a warm evening here in Mullanpur. The Lucknow players are rushing into the middle, and so are the Punjab Kings openers. It will be a different challenge for Punjab this season in batting first, and it will be interesting to see how their batting order will respond to this.

It (Shreyas Iyer's effort) was unbelievable. You know, off the bat, I thought it was coming to me and then, you know, Shreyas Iyer was already halfway there. To see it unfold so close and just the presence of mind from him as well to know where I was and throw it back. That was probably one of the easier catches that comes off my column, but you know, that’s the stuff he practices day in, day out. And it’s just part of his athleticism. To have our best batter also perform those acts on the field, it lifts us other boys out there. So it was amazing seeing it close. I’ve always tried to add value with my batting. It’s obviously the best competition in the world for a reason. Amazing players week in, week out, day in, day out. It’s just an amazing privilege to be a part of this wonderful franchise, Punjab Kings. I’m definitely feeling a little bit more at home here. It’s a challenging environment and it’s always nice to rub shoulders with the best players in the world. I think at the moment we’re just playing our brand of cricket really well. Every team we play against is unbelievable opposition. But I think we’re just sticking to our strengths really well and hopefully we can keep the ball rolling tonight.

We are going to bowl first. Coming here, we want them to set a total for us. They've been one of the best team in the tournament, but at the same time, it gives us that freedom that we can play more freely with them. Generally, I feel, playing for 220 runs is better than playing for 200 sometimes. (Manimaran) Siddharth comes in and (Digvesh) Rathi misses out. (And that elbow is fine?) Much better (smiles).

Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Mukul Choudhary, Mohammed Shami, Avesh Khan, Prince Yadav, Manimaran Siddharth, Mohsin Khan

“It has actually been eight years for me with Punjab Kings now. Obviously, when I first arrived, I didn’t get many opportunities to play. But over the last three to four years, I’ve been getting chances to play, and my effort is always to do better every time I get an opportunity. Sometimes things go well, sometimes they don’t. I also want to thank Punjab Kings for this; I always say this in every interview, that if they have backed me, then it is my duty to pay them back. Regarding leadership, yes, Shreyas Iyer has backed me and in the first meeting also, he told me to play according to my strength and freely and take the team forward. Same with coach Ricky Ponting. When I was retained ahead of the mega auction, he had a talk with me and it showed how he had faith in me and that’s why the team retained me,” saidSingh.

“Absolutely, the game has become so fast now. Earlier, targets of 170-180 runs used to get defended. Such targets also get defended at present but if we look at the percentage in cricket, it has moved to 200-plus. And to score 200-plus runs, I feel one has to come in and play with an attacking approach right from the power play. One also gets clarity from the team management, coach to go all out and play freely as one sees clearly. If you have to hit, then you have to go for it. Obviously, cricket has definitely become faster, so scoring 250 runs is not that difficult anymore,” said Singh, replying to a question by The Indian Express in a media roundtable organised by Punjab Kings.

“Yeah, accepting that [that he has been under scrutiny too much also because of his emotional nature]. I'm now learning that.

"You know, I am a person who naturally talks with gestures. So I'm now learning to keep my hands behind, you know. Because you can take an angle out of context. There are so many morphed versions, there are so many AI-generated versions. But that's it. I mean, what can I do?

“I can only be myself. And at the end of the day, I'm fairly clear on that,” he said.

"Our biggest challenge would be to get everybody match ready. So whoever plays is confident of doing well. Your plan should be very flexible. So sometimes, it's like any other strategy. Even in war, you have this defence and attack," Arun stated.

"He is perfectly alright, fit enough to play tomorrow," Arun told mediapersons ahead of the PBKS game which will be played in the afternoon While Arun is happy that young pacer like Prince Yadav has come of age and bowlers like Mayank Yadav and Mohsin Khan have made a good comeback post injury.

"Yes, there is always room for improvement but I think we are fairly happy with the way they are performing." "I am extremely happy with their progress and I strongly believe that coaching commences only when you connect with every individual. Because every individual is different," Arun elaborated.

"Iyer is the new chase master. We talk about Virat Kohli. If we are attaching someone else's name with him, it's an achievement in itself, but the truth is that his numbers are like his. He has an average of 65 and a strike rate of 180 in chases in the last two years," he said.

"He goes after finishing the match. He got out this time, but the match was over. He had gotten out against Chennai as well, but the match was over. He has gotten out one or two times for sure, or else the average would have been 80. Shreyas is not knocking on the door. He is going to break it down. He is batting like that," he observed.

"It's impossible - I hate hearing that. Once you are in control of emotions, you can be very clear in mindset and be decisive," he says on Believe. "It's not over till last ball is done. For me winning is everything," says the ace No 4.

“I spent 99% of my career fielding in the inner circle, and when I started working as a fielding coach, there was no focus on the modern day ‘hotspots’ on the boundaries. It was only when I started working with Mumbai Indians and saw Kieron Pollard, and then Glenn Maxwell, performing these incredible ‘airborne saves’ on the boundaries that we started focusing on not only taking catches off balls that were already beyond the rope, but even saving the ball from going for a sixer, and forcing the batters to run only 1 or 2.”

"From a captaincy viewpoint, it's just experience. He's got older. He was very young when he was captaining in Delhi and he's just more experienced. He's very well-planned. He still follows his gut, even though he is well-planned. As I said, I can't speak highly enough for him. If you see him at training, you see him around the team hotel and that, he's just one of the boys as well, which I think really endears himself to the rest of the group"

Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Shashank Singh, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Harpreet Brar/Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal