Mumbai, April 16 (IANS) The magical combination of Prabhsimran Singh and Shreyas Iyer hammered half-centuries each in their second successive match and shared another crucial partnership as they helped Punjab Kings romp to a seven-wicket victory over the Mumbai Indians in Match 24 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday.
Prabhsimran and Shreyas Iyer had scored half-centuries to help PBKS beat Sunrisers Hyderabad a couple of days back, and on Thursday, they mastered another chase with the former hammering 80 not off 39 balls and the latter scoring 66 off 35 as PBKS reached 198/3 in 16.3 overs after inserting Mumbai Indians in and restricting them to 195/6 despite a scintillating unbeaten century by Quinton de Kock (112*) and fifty by Naman Dhir.
While Prabhsimran scored his second fifty of IPL 2026, Iyer hammered his third successive half-century in the tournament, but this one would be more satisfactory for him as it came at his home ground and against a team that had three members of the T20 World Cup-winning Indian team, for which he was not considered.
Their 139-run partnership for the third wicket ensured PBKS won the match with 21 balls to spare to post their fourth win in five matches and remain unbeaten. With this win, PBKS surged to the top of the points table with nine points, while the Mumbai Indians remained on two points from one win and four defeats.
Chasing a challenging target of 196, Punjab Kings lost opener Priyansh Arya early after they negotiated the first two overs by Deepak Chahar and Jasprit Bumrah. But the introduction of AM Ghazanfar, who came in as an impact player in place of Suryakumar Yadav, fetched the Mumbai Indians the breakthrough when Arya whipped it off the leg stump straight to Chahar at midwicket. He fell for 15 off 9 balls (2×4, 1×6) with the team score reading 27/1.
It soon became 45/2 as Cooper Connolly struck one four and two sixes during his brief stay before edging it behind to Quinton de Kock off Ghazanfar.
But Prabhsimran Singh and skipper Shreyas Iyer rescued them from the difficult position to put them on course to victory, sharing a century partnership for the third wicket.
Prabhsimran was in brilliant form as he scored his second successive half-century, as he played shots all around the ground, timing the ball sweetly and kept the chase going. He had a slice of luck early on when Jasprit Bumrah dropped an easy chance off Hardik Pandya.
Prabhsimran started with back-to-back fours off Chahar in the first over, followed that up with a six and four off the pacer in the eighth over; hammered Hardik Pandya for successive boundaries in the 10th over and struck the MI captain four and six in the 14th over. Ghazanfar and Shardul Thakur, too, were treated for boundaries as he reached his fifty off 23 balls as PBKS cruised towards the target.
He forged another crucial partnership with Iyer after doing the same against SRH a few days back. Iyer, who picked a sensational catch to dismiss his counterpart, played able foil to his partner early on before blazing some brilliant shots towards the end of his knock, reaching his half-century in 31 balls, hitting five fours and two sixes.
With PBKS needing 35 runs from 36 balls, Iyer struck Bumrah for a couple of boundaries before smashing Shadrul Thakur for sixes off successive balls in the 16th over after being dropped by Naman Dhir in deep once. Shardul and Dhir had the last laugh when they ended Iyer’s sensational knock. Dhir picked a superb catch to make up for his earlier mistake, but the match was as good as over by that time. Iyer scored 66 off 35 balls, smashing five fours and four sixes.
Prabhsimran propelled PBKS to victory, ending the match with 80 not out off 39 balls, with Marcus Stoinis to keep him company with 10 not out as the PBKS remained unbeaten in five matches.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 195/6 in 20 overs (Quinton de Kock 112 not out, Naman Dhir 50; Arshdeep Singh 3-22) lost to Punjab Kings 198/3 in 16.3 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 80 not out, Shreyas Iyer 66; AM Ghazanfar 2-31) by seven wickets.
–IANS
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