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RCB in IPL 2026 Playoff: The 61st match of IPL 2026 was played between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Dharamshala. RCB has become the first team to reach the playoffs of IPL 2026 by defeating PBKS by 23 runs in this match. On the other hand, Shreyas Iyer’s team Punjab Kings has lost its sixth consecutive match in IPL 2026. Earlier, Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer had won the toss and invited RCB to bat.

Thanks to the half-centuries of Virat Kohli and Venkatesh Iyer, Bengaluru, batting first, scored a huge score of 222 runs in front of PBKS. In response, Punjab Kings could score 199 runs at the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs. Accordingly, Royal Challengers Bangalore won the match by 23 runs.

Virat Kohli took over the innings of RCB

In Dharamshala, RCB got its first blow in the form of Jacob Baithal for 21 runs during the third over. Harpreet Brar clean bowled Baithal for 11 runs and showed him the way to the pavilion. After this, Virat Kohli along with Devdutt Padikkal made an important partnership of 76 runs in 41 balls for the second wicket. In the 10th over, Padikkal became the victim of Harpreet Brar for 45 runs.

Virat Kohli scored 58 runs

After Padikkal, Virat Kohli along with Venkatesh Iyer made a partnership of 60 runs in 35 balls for the third wicket. Then Virat Kohli became the victim of Yuzvendra Chahal after playing an innings of 58 runs in 37 balls. This innings of Kohli included 4 fours and 3 sixes.

Venkatesh Iyer played an explosive inning of 73 runs.

After the dismissal of Virat Kohli, Venkatesh Iyer handled the RCB innings brilliantly. He along with Tim David made an important partnership of 65 runs in just 30 balls for the fourth wicket. Venkatesh played the highest unbeaten inning of 73 runs for the team. Venkatesh hit 8 fours and 4 sixes for these runs scored in just 40 balls. Whereas, Tim David scored 28 runs in 12 balls with a strike rate of 233.

In this match against RCB, Punjab Kings bowlers gave away a lot of runs. This was the reason why RCB was successful in scoring 200+ scores in the match. Lockie Ferguson and Yuzvendra Chahal gave away runs with an economy of 14-14. Whereas, Arshdeep Singh and Shashank Singh gave runs with an economy of 10. If we talk about wickets, Harpreet Brar got 2 wickets and Arshdeep Singh and Yuzvendra Chahal got 1 wicket each.

Punjab Kings batsmen were flop

Punjab Kings batsmen looked a complete flop in front of RCB bowlers. Star batsmen like Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh and captain Shreyas Iyer could not touch double figures. Priyansh Arya Bhuvneshwar became the victim of Kumar in the beginning itself on the score of zero. After this, Prabhsimran Singh scored 2 runs and captain Shreyas Iyer returned to the pavilion after scoring 1 run. This is where Punjab Kings lagged behind in the match.

Shashank Singh played the highest half-century innings of 56 runs for Punjab. Whereas, Marcus Stennis and Cooper Connolly scored 37-37 runs and Suryansh Shedge scored 35 runs.

Rasik Salam Dar took 3 wickets

Rasik Salam Dar for RCB punjab kings Made 3 batsmen his victims. Whereas, Bhuvneshwar Kumar got 2 wickets. On the other hand, Josh Heddlewood, Suyyash Sharma and Romario Shepherd took 1 wicket each.