Just hours after the Artemis II crew splashed down from their historic journey around the moon, a few willow-wielders took guard at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium as if they were determined to send some cricket balls back into the lunar orbit.
A mammoth 442 runs were plundered by the Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad batters, at the end of which PBKS triumphed by six wickets.
While Abhishek Sharma’s 28-ball 74 (5×4, 8×6) proved the launchpad for SRH’s 219 for six, Priyansh Arya (57, 20b, 5×4, 5×6), Prabhsimran Singh (51, 25b, 4×4, 4×6) and Shreyas Iyer (69 n.o., 33b, 5×4, 5×6) ensured PBKS remained unbeaten in IPL 2026.
SRH left-arm wrist-spinner Shivang Kumar bowled with gumption (three for 33) and priced out the PBKS top-order, but the damage had been done before he was introduced in the seventh over.
While Abhishek’s half-century came off 18 balls, Priyansh’s came two deliveries faster. It took the SRH openers 3.4 overs to breach the 50-run mark; their counterparts did it in 3.3.
The blistering start made the rest of the run chase a formality as skipper Shreyas took the side home with seven deliveries to spare.
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Earlier, Arshdeep Singh’s 10-ball second over went for 24 runs, as Abhishek punished anything in his arc with elan.
Part-time bowler Shashank Singh proved to be the unlikely circuit-breaker after the 105-run PowerPlay.
The gentle medium-pacer repaid the faith shown by Shreyas by having Travis Head (38, 23b, 5×4, 1×6) and Abhishek caught in the deep.
After being 120 for no loss in eight overs, the SRH innings decelerated.
Arshdeep’s 14th over saw two contrasting fielding efforts. While Marcus Stoinis dropped Heinrich Klaasen at long-off, Marco Jansen ran to his right and plucked the ball out of thin air with his outstretched right hand to send back Ishan Kishan.
The nonchalance of the whole exercise saw Arshdeep cover his mouth and sit down in disbelief, though the crowd’s reaction was to stand up and applaud.
Later, Klaasen tossed his bat in the air out of frustration after his scratchy innings (39, 33b, 1×4, 1×6). Perhaps he knew that his knock would come back to haunt his team.
The PBKS willow-wielders made sure of it.
Published on Apr 11, 2026
![IPL 2026: Shashank Singh plays down PBKS’s poor record against SRH, backs bowlers to come good “Our bowling unit wants to dominate not only tomorrow’s [Saturday] match but also all the upcoming matches.”This one line from Punjab Kings batter Shashank Singh easily conveys the confidence the team has in its bowling line-up, which next faces the batting might of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL).“We are backing our strength. The present situation is that our bowlers are playing very well. Their batting order is very good, but we have a very good attack with the likes of Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen in our ranks. So, we will prefer to think about our strengths and not theirs,” Shashank said during the pre-match press conference here on Friday.READ | Batting units in the spotlight as Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad meetPBKS used up 19.1 overs and seven wickets while chasing down 163 against Gujarat Titans the last time it played at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium. The hosts come into this contest without a great record, both at this ground (4-7) and against their opponent (7-17).“We don’t think about stats. Right now, we are looking at trying to impress each other in our team.”“We don’t have the best of records in home conditions over the past couple of years. But again, we could have won the first match convincingly this season. We made some mistakes in the middle overs, which led to that game going down to the wire… as humans, you make errors and learn from them. In a way, it was good that the first match challenged us,” Shashank added.Published on Apr 10, 2026 #IPL #Shashank #Singh #plays #PBKSs #poor #record #SRH #backs #bowlers #good](https://i0.wp.com/ss-i.thgim.com/public/incoming/k9gc09/article70847874.ece/alternates/LANDSCAPE_1200/hahs.jpg?ssl=1 "IPL 2026: Shashank Singh plays down PBKS’s poor record against SRH, backs bowlers to come good “Our bowling unit wants to dominate not only tomorrow’s [Saturday] match but also all the upcoming matches.”This one line from Punjab Kings batter Shashank Singh easily conveys the confidence the team has in its bowling line-up, which next faces the batting might of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL).“We are backing our strength. The present situation is that our bowlers are playing very well. Their batting order is very good, but we have a very good attack with the likes of Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh and Marco Jansen in our ranks. So, we will prefer to think about our strengths and not theirs,” Shashank said during the pre-match press conference here on Friday.READ | Batting units in the spotlight as Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad meetPBKS used up 19.1 overs and seven wickets while chasing down 163 against Gujarat Titans the last time it played at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium. The hosts come into this contest without a great record, both at this ground (4-7) and against their opponent (7-17).“We don’t think about stats. Right now, we are looking at trying to impress each other in our team.”“We don’t have the best of records in home conditions over the past couple of years. But again, we could have won the first match convincingly this season. We made some mistakes in the middle overs, which led to that game going down to the wire… as humans, you make errors and learn from them. In a way, it was good that the first match challenged us,” Shashank added.Published on Apr 10, 2026 #IPL #Shashank #Singh #plays #PBKSs #poor #record #SRH #backs #bowlers #good")