LSG vs PBKS, IPL 2026: Shreyas hits ton as Punjab win big, stay alive in competition

PBKS chase down 197 in 18 overs only as Shreyas Iyer scores a ton. Punjab move to 15 points. A win has come after 6 matches. What an achievement by Punjab.

The last over from Shami fetched 20 runs as three sixes by Iyer were hit. Arjun comes on for a fresh over, and has been dealing in yorkers. He has bowled well to be honest. His spell comes to an end.

Earlier, Prabh was dropped on the bowling of Arjun, but now the bowler has his revenge. Excellent yorker hits him in front of the wickets, and he has a wicket finally. Prabh out for 69.

Prince gets the ball to come back into Prabh. He hits it straight into the hands of covers fielder. Out for 62 from 34, and the 117-rrun partnership has been broken. Oh, Badoni has made a mess of it. The ball just hits the ground and the fingers were not beneath it.

Pant brings back Rathi, and he has been once again poor this year. One doesn't know what propels Pant to back him. Shreyas gets his 50 in 33 deliveries. Punjab is winning this one.

Prabh has finally come good again, and the result is, Punjab are on their way to a big win. He gets to his fifty in only 28 deliveries. He need to stay on.

The bowling changes, and some mediocre bowling.. Pant must be a frustrated man. Nothing has gone their way. But they would like to not fininsh the tournament at no. 10. Two fours come from the over.

Arjun had been bowling well, but a dropped catch deflates the confidence of a player. Meanwhile, Prabh dances down the track and scoops through third man for four. Punjab clearly ahead for now.

Oh god. The catching is once again an issue. Arjun bowls a short one and Prabhsimran cannot control it. The ball kisses the glove, but Pant makes a mess of it.

As soon as Prince is loading up for his jump, he slips slightly and stops. Looks in a bit of discomfort. Hopefully he is okay. India debut isn't away from him. Decent powerplay for Punjab comes to an end.

Pant brings in Digvesh Rathi into the attack. Prabhsimran has a visible weakness against spin, so let' see how he fares. Two boudnaries come in the over.

Mohsin Khan comes into the attack. And he manages to create that awkward angle from the left-hander. But Iyer looks defiant, and creams him for a four through point.

The Aussie batter bats in a limited manner, where he doesn't move his feet much. It is a snake delivery that he can't judge as the stump goes cartwheeling. two fours for Iyer to end the Shami over.

If Punjab have to win this match, Connolly needs to stay till the very end. The rest of the batting just having a bad time. Hopefully he gets some support from other batters.

Just bowl a short one to Priyansh Arya, and you could be guaranteed a wicket. Shami does that to him on the first ball, and he is out for a duck. Nonetheless, Connolly gets two fours in the over.

Arshdeep Singh ends up conceding 12 runs as Lucknow Super Giants post 196/6 in 20 overs. Arshdeep was expensive today, conceding 52 runs in his 3 overs. As for LSG, Josh Inglis (72 off 44) and Ayush Badoni (43 off 18) provided them with the goods before Abdul Samad's finishing touches with a 20-ball 37 to post a total close to 200.

Mukul Choudhary departs for 1 as Marco Jansen strikes in the 18th over. Mukul tried to tee off with just two overs left, but he did not get enough timing and gave away a catch to Pravin Dubey.

Shreyas Iyer trusted Shashank Singh to bowl the 17th over and he has repaid the faith. He has dismissed Josh Inglis and that could help PBKS restrict LSG to sub-200 total.

Despite Rishabh Pant's wicket, Lucknow are well in command, thanks to Josh Inglish. He is striking at 172.50 as Lucknow post 147/4 in 15 overs. Abdul Samad is on the crease with him, with Mukul Choudhary to come.

Yuzvendra Chahal ends Rishabh Pant's 22-ball 26-run struggle. Just two deliveries ago, Shreyas Iyer dropped Rishabh's catch. But this time, Marco Jansen holds on to it well.

Josh Inglis brings up his third half-century in last five innings. He gets to the milestone in 28 balls as he punishes Arshdeep Singh for 19 runs to also bring up the 50-run stand with Rishabh Pant.

Josh Inglis has been dominant in the powerplay this IPL season, with a strike rate of 245; the best by any batter in the phase this season.#IPL2026 #LSGvPBKS pic.twitter.com/aqPjMk26qg

— CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) May 23, 2026

10 overs gone and Lucknow Super Giants are 100/3. Rishabh Pant and Josh Inglis are leading the charge after Ayush Badoni perished.

Excellent stumping and an excellent review by Prabhsimran Singh. Ayush Badoni will be disappointed with the dismissal as he lifted his back foot, thinking the ball is already dead, but it was still in play. Prabhsimran stumped him and even as the umpire was not convinced, he forced him to review that. And the replays showed that Badoni's foot was in the air. The 49-run stand is broken as Badoni falls for 18-ball 43.

Ayush Badoni leads the charge for the recovery and he hits 42 off 16 to end the powerplay with 62/2 with 42 runs coming off the last two overs of the powerplay.

Ayush Badoni and Josh Inglis are now helping Lucknow recover. After a lull and the two quick blows, they have scored 18 runs off Marco Jansen's second over.

Nicholas Pooran ends IPL 2026 with a 7-ball 2. Marco Jansen bowled a little short and as Pooran tried to pull, he got a thick inside edge and dragged the ball to his stumps. LSG lose their 2nd wicket for 20.

Azmatullah Omarzai strikes on the first ball, and Arshin Kulkarni departs for a golden duck. Omarzai bowled a back-of-the-length delivery, outside off, and as Kulkarni tried to take him on, he edged it to the keeper.

A poor start for Arshdeep Singh and Josh Inglis takes full advantage. He hits four boundaries in the first over to make it a 16-run over.

Here we go! Lucknow Super Giants once again have a new opening pair, 6th this season. Josh Inglish and Arshin Kulkarni have paired up today for the last time this season.

Arjun Tendulkar makes his debut for Lucknow, while Arshin Tendulkar returns to the opening spot. He will open with Josh Inglis with Rishabh Pant slotting down at No. 5. 

Josh Inglis, Arshin Kulkarni, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, Arjun Tendulkar, Mohammed Shami, Prince Yadav, Mohsin Khan

Impact sub options: Shahbaz Ahmed, Digvesh Rathi, M Siddarth, Himmat Singh, Akash Singh

Punjab Kings have returned to their original Playing XI, with Marco Jansen and Vyshak Vijaykumar returning. 

Prabhsimran Singh(w), Priyansh Arya, Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer(c), Suryansh Shedge, Shashank Singh, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Jansen, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal

Impact sub options: Harpreet Brar, Marcus Stoinis, Xavier Bartlett, Vishni Vinod, Pravin Dubey

Shreyas Iyer wins the toss for Punjab Kings and opts to bowl first. Marco Jansen and Vyshak Vijaykumar return for PBKS. Arjun Tendulkar gets a rare IPL game and makes his LSG debut.

As for Punjab Kings, their arc is one of the stranger ones in recent IPL memory. Seven games unbeaten to open the campaign, they were dubbed the title favourites by pundits. Then, they hit their low with six straight losses. Now, a win won’t guarantee them a spot. Instead, PBKS will have to rely on Mumbai Indians to beat Rajasthan Royals and stay ahead of KKR in net run rate. 

But PBKS must find a way to win today to stay alive in the race. For that to happen, their bowling unit must take the responsibility. PBKS have the best run rate and the worst economy rate in IPL 2026. Add poor fielding, and one will find the reason behind PBKS’ sudden downfall. 

Position	Team	Run Rate	Economy Rate
1	PBKS	10.82	10.6
2	DC	9.32	10.2
3	MI	9.56	10.07
4	RR	10.07	9.99
5	SRH	10.33	9.81
6	LSG	9.07	9.77
7	RCB	10.39	9.61
8	CSK	9.2	9.55
9	KKR	9.18	9.16
10	GT	9.45	8.76

Lucknow's season has been a story of wrong timing and missed chances. Rishabh Pant's side is out, walking into their last home game with no pressure at all. That's what makes them difficult to face. However, Mitchell Marsh, who hit 96 in their last game, is out. Marsh has returned home along with Aiden Markram and Matthew Breetzke.

LSG will need to find a new opening pair for their last game, and it will be about testing the bench strength. Jish Inglis is likely to open with Rishabh Pant. 

Ekana Stadium in Lucknow is the graveyard of batters. At least, that was the case in the first half of the IPL. Teams struggled with the bat, either way. In the last two games, it changed. The average first-innings score jumped from 155 to 198. But overall, it's a venue where teams batting first have won more than the chasing sides, even though 77% of the captains opt to bowl. 

In those two high-scoring games, LSG won batting first (DLS method) and also chasing. Hence, if the pitch stays the same, toss won't have a lot of impact. But considering Punjab Kings love to chase and concede big totals. If Shreyas Iyer wins the toss, he should opt to chase. As for Rishabh Pant, he won't mind bowling first with a great pace attack in his side.

Must win: Lose tonight and Punjab are out. There is no scenario in which they qualify without winning this game.

Win big: Points alone won't cut it. Six straight defeats have dragged PBKS's NRR deep into negative territory. A narrow win gets them to the right points total but leaves them on the wrong side of the run rate calculation. They need a 40-50 run margin with the ball, or five-plus overs remaining in a chase. That's the kind of number they need to be thinking about from the first ball.

Wait and hope: Even after winning big, PBKS need results from other final-round games to fall the right way. RR, DC and KKR fixtures all carry implications. Punjab can control tonight. Everything else is out of their hands.

The Ekana pitch is a different surface from what it was in March. Early in the season, the black-soil, two-paced track was a nightmare for batters, with first-innings scores averaging around 161. The most recent game here saw a 228-run target chased down successfully. The surface has hardened, and the strokeplay is easier. These are not the same conditions teams were dealing with at the start of the campaign.

Pacers still find early movement and some uneven bounce with the new ball in the powerplay, and spinners get grip in the middle overs. But the window for bowling sides is narrower now than it was in April.

Punjab have edged ahead in the overall rivalry, though Lucknow have been competitive throughout. The 54-run reverse-fixture win is the result PBKS will be trying to replicate tonight. LSG will want to prove that scoreline was the outlier, not the last six games.