PBKS vs SRH

7:36 PM local time and IST: So, that will be all from New Chandigarh for now. The action shifts to Chennai, where the home team, the Super Kings, is up against Delhi Capitals. You can click here and follow our commentary for that game. This is the pair of Bala and Bidipto taking your leave, Keep following Sportskeeda! 

Shreyas Iyer (Punjab Kings captain and Player of the Match, 69* off 33 balls): "We got a phenomenal start! When you're chasing 220, you need a start like that. That was exceptional! For me, it was about assessing things and reading the play. My job just got simpler. Shashank (Singh) came up to me and asked for an over. So, in the timeout, Ricky (Ponting) asked what I was thinking, and I said that he should bowl because the rhythm needs to be broken with a bowler bowling at 120. He delivered! You need to have a strong mindset approaching big chases like these. The openers don't need to do anything different, they don't need to be told anything either. But the rest of us have to bat according to the needs. I am excited with this beginning to the tournament! We got a couple of days off, and we trained properly. If we want to lift the trophy though, we have to keep working hard. Ricky helps us in that regard a lot, but, we've got to keep this going." 

Brad Haddin (Assistant coach, Punjab Kings): Everyone definitely got their money’s worth tonight. Pure entertainment. But I think what we did really well, especially after those first six overs, was stay calm. We absorbed the pressure, pulled things back, and regained a bit of momentum through the middle phase. The players already know their plans. It’s about staying calm. Inside, things might be racing, but externally you stay composed. Trust your plans, execute them. And if that one opportunity comes, you grab it and shift the game. That’s exactly what we managed to do in the middle overs. The whole idea of rotating strike almost feels outdated now. The mindset is, if it’s in the arc, put it into the second tier. The hitting throughout this tournament has been phenomenal, but those first six overs tonight were as brutal as I’ve ever seen. It’s about courage. In the powerplay, you’ve got to be brave. From our side, we’re very clear, it’s about taking wickets. If you just let batters cruise through those six overs, you’ll get exactly what we saw tonight. Our bowlers focus on ways to take wickets early. We’ve done it before, like in Kolkata when we got early breakthroughs. The key is clarity in plans and an attacking mindset, not a defensive one. You know what the batters are trying to do, maximize the powerplay. If you can counter that with bravery and a wicket-taking mindset, you can swing momentum back your way and take control of the game. But yes, it’s brutal out there. The pleasing part is that we haven’t even played our best game yet. We’re getting results without putting all three phases together. As the tournament progresses, that’s what we’re aiming for, peaking at the right time and delivering complete performances. And we’re starting to get there now.

Ishan Kishan (Sunrisers Hyderabad captain): "Yeah, I think the way we started, we were looking at 230–240. We fell a little short there. Having said that, 219 is still a very good total on this surface. But in T20s, it really comes down to execution, and we weren’t quite there today. Honestly, I thought 219 was competitive. With the kind of bowling options we had, it should have been enough. But we didn’t read their batters well in the middle overs, and that made things easier for them towards the end. Most of the planning is done before the game. You know the batters, their strengths, the boundary dimensions. It’s about using those factors. But again, if you don’t execute your plans, you end up leaking 10–15 runs extra every over. Credit to them, they batted really well. Not really. The game is simple. Batters put up a total, bowlers defend it. If you bowl in the right areas and execute well, you can defend any score. Today, we just didn’t do that consistently enough."

7:13 PM local time and IST: Punjab Kings win by 6 wickets with 7 balls to spare! 

Shreyas Iyer 69* (33) | Shashank Singh - 2/20 (3)
Abhishek Sharma 74 (28) | Shivang Kumar - 3/33 (4)

Punjab Kings win 10 times, chasing 200 runs or more, in the IPL! That is the most for any team. And, they do this one, as if it were a target of 100 runs! 

The power play batting from Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head had to matched. And didn't Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh do just that! 

The explosive pair smashed their way to 93 runs in the first 6 overs, with fours and sixes galore! Yes the pitch allowed the new ball to come on well, and the bowling lacked clarity as well, but the belligerence from the opening batters was just something else! 

Priyansh Arya brought up his half-century first, and Prabhsimran followed suit, but when your opening stand is 99 from 38 deliveries, you can't ask for more in a run chase of over 215 runs! 

There were positives for Sunrisers Hyderabad of course, but, they were pretty less! The most prominent one of course, was the left-arm wrist spin of Shivang Kumar! 

The young man bowled extremely well! He got his wrong 'uns to go, and foxed the batters, both in terms of length and pace. The reward for bowling 4 good overs - 3 wickets! 

But what do you do when captain Shreyas Iyer is at the crease, if you're in the opposition? Well, the simple thing is, get him out quickly! Because if you don't, he will out-calculate you, and then, leave you jaw-dropped with his stoke-play! 

Playing another captain's knock in yet another 200+ chase this season, the PBKS skipper got the job done, batting sensibly, aggressively and as we said, calculatedly. 

He got decent enough help from Impact Player Nehal Wadhera first, and then right towards the end from Shashank Singh. 

As for SRH, it was about not getting the execution of their plans right. And they suffered because of that, big time! 

It's two wins out of two at home, for PBKS, which is a welcome, and a confident change! They move to second in the table with 7 points. 

18.5 Abhishek Sharma to Shashank Singh, FOUR! Finishes it off with a boundary! Flat ball angling down the leg. Glances it fine off his pads. Easy in the end for Punjab Kings!