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Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) faced each other in the 61st match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. In this match played at HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala on Sunday (May 17), RCB defeated PBKS by 23 runs and confirmed its place in the playoffs. Also, it has been decided that RCB will be in the top-2.

Batting first after losing the toss, RCB scored 222 runs at the loss of 4 wickets. In response, PBKS could score only 199 runs after losing 8 wickets. This was his sixth consecutive defeat. Whereas in Dharamshala, PBKS lost its third consecutive match. After this defeat, it has become difficult for the team captained by Shreyas Iyer to reach the playoffs.

Kohli-Iyer played half-century innings

RCB did not have a good start after being invited to bat first. Jacob Bethel walked out after scoring 11 runs in 7 balls. After this, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal took charge and made a partnership of 76 runs for the second wicket. Padikkal was out after playing an innings of 45 runs in 25 balls. Whereas Kohli played a half-century innings. He scored 58 runs in 37 balls with the help of 4 fours and 3 sixes.

After Kohli’s dismissal, Venkatesh Iyer (73 not out in 40 balls) and Tim David (28 not out in 12 balls) batted brilliantly and took RCB to a huge score.

Bhuvneshwar pushed PBKS to the bfoot

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was chasing a big target, pushed him on the backfoot with a double blow. Bhuvneshwar first took the wicket of Priyansh Arya (0) and then got Prabhsimran Singh (2) caught by Devdutt Padikkal. After this, Rasil Salam Dar broke the back of PBKS’s batting order by sending Shreyas Iyer to the pavilion. PBKS team could never recover from 3 setbacks for 19 runs. Shashank Singh played an inning of 56 runs in 27 balls but PBKS remained far away from the target.