Debutant Cooper Connolly sails Punjab Kings, thrashes Gujarat Titans, Iyer's team starts with victory

New Delhi. Punjab Kings have started their campaign in IPL 2026 with a win. In a thrilling match played at Maharaja Yadvendra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, Shreyas Iyer's team defeated Gujarat Titans by three wickets. The hero of Punjab's victory was Cooper Connolly, who made his debut and ensured the team's victory by playing an unbeaten inning of 72 runs in 44 balls. Batting first after losing the toss, Gujarat Titans scored 162 runs at the loss of 6 wickets. Punjab team chased the target of 163 runs by scoring 165 runs with 5 balls remaining. Apart from Connolly, Prabhasimran Singh played an important role in this victory by scoring 37 runs.

While chasing the target, Punjab got a big shock in the form of Priyansh Arya in the beginning, who was out after scoring 7 runs. However, after this, Prabhasimran and Connolly took over the innings and played some attractive shots in the powerplay and made a partnership of 76 runs for the second wicket. Prabhasimran was out after scoring 37 runs. Captain Shreyas Iyer, who came at number-4, showed a stormy attitude as soon as he arrived, but he was out on the team score of 110 runs. Iyer scored 18 runs. With this wicket, Punjab's innings faltered and the team lost a total of 6 wickets before reaching 118 runs.

Famous Krishna increased the heartbeat of Punjab
Prasidh Krishna, who came in the 12th and 14th overs of the innings, increased the heartbeats of Punjab fans by taking three wickets. It seemed that from here the Gujarat team would turn the tables and win the match, but amidst the falling wickets, Connolly maintained patience and completed his half-century. With his presence at the crease, Punjab's hopes of victory remained intact. Connolly took the match closer by making a 26-run partnership with Marco Jansen for the seventh wicket. Xavier Bartlett, who came after Yansen was out, hit a six and put Punjab on the winning line. After this, Connolly sealed Punjab's victory by hitting two fours. The winning shot came from Connolly's bat on the first ball of the last over. His innings included 5 fours and the same number of sixes.

Gujarat's batting was like this
After losing the toss and opting to bat, Gujarat Titans scored 162 runs after losing 6 wickets in the stipulated overs. The pair of Sai Sudarshan and captain Shubman Gill gave a strong start to this team. Both the players made a partnership of 37 runs in 3.4 overs. Sudarshan returned to the pavilion after scoring 13 runs in 11 balls. After this, Gill put the team in a strong position by making a partnership of 46 runs in 35 balls with Jos Buttler for the second wicket. The captain was out after scoring 39 runs with 6 sixes in 27 balls, after which Butler along with Glenn Phillips scored 36 runs for the third wicket and took the team beyond the century.

Butler added 38 runs to the team's account in 33 balls. Apart from these, Glenn Phillips contributed 25 runs and Washington Sundar contributed 18 runs. In the last over of the innings, fast bowler Arshdeep Singh bowled a total of 11 balls. During this period, 4 wides and 1 no-ball were included. Arshdeep gave away 12 runs in this entire over. For Punjab Kings, Vijaykumar Vaishak took the maximum of 3 wickets for 34 runs, while Yuzvendra Chahal took 2 wickets. Marco Yansen hunted one.