Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru booked their place in the IPL 2026 playoffs after beating Punjab Kings by 23 runs at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala.

RCB mocked PBKS

After the win, RCB took a cheeky dig at PBKS on social media by posting, “Masterclass 101: What not to tweet.” The post was seen as a response to Punjab’s earlier troll this season, when PBKS had mocked RCB after their record-low total of 49 runs.

The victory also continued Punjab’s poor run in the tournament. After starting the season strongly with seven matches unbeaten, the team has now suffered six consecutive defeats, hurting their campaign badly. Punjab Kings will now face Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on May 23 at Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. The Shreyas Iyer-led side needs to win that match to stay in contention for the IPL 2026 playoffs. 

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PBKS vs RCB clash

Coming back to the PBKS vs RCB clash, after being asked to bat, RCB posted a mammoth 222 runs in 20 overs, thanks to Virat Kohli's half-century and Venkatesh Iyer's unbeaten 73 off 40 followed by Tim David's 28 off 12 run cameo.

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While chasing, PBKS failed to get a good start as Bhuvneshwar Kumar rattled the top order, removing Priyansh Arya (0 off 3) and Prabhsimran Singh (2 off 5). After that, the Punjab-based franchise failed to get the momentum. They eventually managed to score 199 runs, and Shashank Singh was the only batter who managed to score more than 50 runs.


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