CSK vs PBKS, IPL 2026 Match Updates Highlights: Shreyas Iyer slams half century as Punjab Kings defeat Chennai Super Kings by 5 wickets

Matt Henry starts this one and he has STRUCK!! Tries to reach for that wide line and plays it straight into the hands of Noor Ahmad!! Will Punjab have another collapse like last match?

Nehal Wadhera c Noor Ahmad b Matt Henry 10(9)

Chahar to complete his quota and Iyer times the ball perfectly for four!! Follows up with a single. What can Wadhera do? He can slam a SIXX, that's what!! Absolutely smoked. 14 off this one.

PBKS 177/3 after 16 overs

Noor to bowl out with this over and almost another run out for Punjab but the ball couldn't be gathered on time. Risky single. 3 runs from the first 3 deliveries including a wide. Just 5 from this one.

PBKS 148/3 after 14 overs

Kamboj back in the attack and sprays the ball short and wide for Connolly to calmly cuts it for a four. Goes off strike with a single and Iyer is on strike. He takes a single as well. And Connolly with four more!! Just shimmies and guides the ball towarsd the fine leg boundary. Goes again and is GONE!!!! Full toss and Connolly tries to get his bat to it and Henry with an easy catch!!!

Cooper Connolly c Matt Henry b Anshul Kamboj 36(22)

Chahar will continue and yields just 2 from the first 3 deliveries before Connolly slammed one over the bowler's head for a four!! 100 up for Punjab. 8 from this one ultimately.

PBKS 103/2 after 10 overs

Rahul Chahar in the attack and a huge shout for an LBW on Prabhsimran. Umpire says no and CSK do not review. Connolly and Prabhsimran rotate strikes with singles as the scoreboard is kept busy. Connolly ends the over with a boundary.

PBKS 88/1 after 8 overs

Last over of the powerplay and Khaleel will bowl. Prabhsimran swings and misses the first ball. It's followed by a four over covers for four more!! The next one is swung and missed again, followed by another. Takes a single next and Connolly on strike. Just the 5 from this one.

PBKS 68/1 after 6 overs

Kamboj in the attack now and Prabhsimran slams one through the bowler to the boundary!! That is followed up with another shot over the bowler for 4 more. 50 up for PBKS. Over the in-field again and Prabhsimran gets another boundary.

PBKS 55/0 after 4 overs

Matt Henry will bowl the second over and Arya slashes, gets an edge and that flies to the boundary. Follows that up with a pull shot that clears the ropes for a SIX!! AAND ANOTHER BOUNDARY!! This time off the front foot and drives through the covers. Takes a single next and Prabhsimran is on strike and he slams a boundary!! Henry is being taken apart. 20 to end.

PBKS 34/0 after 2 overs

Arshdeep to bowl the last over and Veer and Dube with a sneaky single. Could have been run out but Prabhsimran couldn't hit the target. Arshdeep with a wide now. And they review for wide again. It stays a wide. And the next ball is slapped for a four!! That's 200 up for the Yellow Army. Back to back dots now before Dube swings his bat and miscues and the ball goes to the fine leg boundary. AAND HE ENDS WITH FOUR MORE!!

CSK POST 209/5

Jansen to bowl out with this over and he starts with a wide. and Dube follows that up with a SIX!! Takes a single next and Veer is back on strike. He slams a four to fine leg as he just ramps one over everyone. First IPL runs for the youngster. PBKS now review for LBW. Pitching outside and the review is lost. 14 from this one.

CSK 182/5 after 18 overs

On to the 16th and Bartlett is reintroduced to the proceedings. Dube mines 2 from the first ball before playing 2 dots. Eventually takes a single and Sarfaz has absolutely hammered the next ball over the ropes for a SIX!! 11 from this one.

CSK 156/4 after 16 overs

Jansen in the attack again and yields back to back braces off the first couple of deliveries. Followed by a single by Dube and Kartik Sharma is on strike. Big shout for a LBW and Jansen looks pretty confident and he has convinced Iyer to take the review. AND YES!! HE'S GONE!! ANOTHER DOWN FOR CSK.

Kartik Sharma lbw b Marco Jansen 1(3)

Chahal on strike AAAND HE GETS THE BREAKTHROUGH!! Ruturaj went for a sweep but plays it straight into the hands of the fielder!! 96-run partnership broken.

Ruturaj Gaikwad c Nehal Wadhera b Yuzvendra Chahal 28(22)

Chahal continues and he's not letting the batters get much of a room to hit him. AAAND ALSMOST HAS A WICKET BUT IT'S DROPPED!! Vyshak runs towards it but can't get a grip on the ball!! Big chance but is let go. 5 runs from the next couple of deliveries as the batters kerep the scoreboard ticking. 7 from this one.

CSK 101/1 after 10 overs

Spin is in as Iyer brings on Chahal. Ruturaj and Mhtare take singles off the first two deliveries. That is followed by 2 more singles as Chahal manages to keep the batters, especially Mhatre quiet. Just 6 from this one.

CSK 77/1 after 8 overs

Change of ends for Arshdeep as he starts the last over of the powerplay with a dot. Follows that up with a wide. Mhatre slams the next ball over long off for a four!! Takes a single to put Rutu on strike. The CSK captain returns the favour with a single of his own and Mhatre can see this over off. A single to end.

CSK 57/1 after 6 overs

Bartlett continues and Gaikwad takes a single to start this one off. Mhatre on strike and he pulls one over the inner circle and to the mid-on boundary!! That is followed by another flick through deep mid-wicket for four more!! AAAND THAT'S FOLLOWED UP WITH ANOTHER PULL AND ANOTHER FOUR!! HATTRICK OF BOUNDARIES!! Exactly what CSK need. A miscued shot and gets 2 runs. 15 from this one.

CSK 39/1 after 4 overs

Barlett in the attack now and he starts off with a boundary as Ruturaj drives it through the covers. Good comeback by the bowler as the next delivery is a dot as it gets under Rutu's bat and hits the ground off the edge. Takes a single next and Sanju is back on strike. Excellent outswing as Samson stays rooted to the spot. But the next one is sent through the covers for four more!! AAAND GONE!! Gave himself a bit of room and he gets an edge and that has carried to the keeper!!

Sanju Samson c Prabhsimran Singh b Xavier Bartlett 7(7)

Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer was hit flush on his wrist by a shot hit by teammate on Tuesday in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match vs the Gujarat Titans. He looked in considerable pain as the physio checked on him and was dismissed on the very next delivery.

“All I can say, it’s nice. It’s the same as it was before. I don’t want to jinx anything. I just want to stay positive and hopefully everything comes out right,” Iyer had said in the post-match presentation ceremony when asked about the injury.

Chennai are lining up without MS Dhoni and Dewald Brevis once again. While Dhoni is expected to come back after a week, Brevis might return sooner after sitting out the first 2 matches due to injury. But not in this match which will put the pressure on the CSK batters once again.

Sanju Samson(w), Ruturaj Gaikwad(c), Ayush Mhatre, Sarfaraz Khan, Shivam Dube, Kartik Sharma, Prashant Veer, Noor Ahmad, Anshul Kamboj, Matt Henry, Khaleel Ahmed

Here are the two captains in the middle. Punjab Kings win the toss and opt to bowl first. This is the 7th time that the team winning the toss first have chosen to bowl first in all the 7 matches.

After finishing last in 2025, CSK are propping up the table once more with a woeful Net Run Rate after a damaging opening defeat. There might be mitigating injuries, but their tactics – like not opening with Ayush Mhatre and lightweight batting XI when asked to bat first – left a lot wanting too.

As prepare to play their first home game of the season against , all eyes are on how their young batting unit will come up. In the last two seasons, CSK have struggled in their own conditions, with the pitch at Chepauk becoming more batting-friendly. From being a venue where spinners called the shots, it has evolved into a pitch where pacers have got more purchase. And in the recent T20 World Cup, witnessed high-scoring games. All of it points to CSK playing on flat decks, which hasn’t been their strength in recent times. And on the eve of the game, Gaikwad said he isn’t sure of how the pitch will behave this time as well.

Despite the big loss against Rajasthan Royals in their opening match, where they were outplayed on all fronts, Chennai Super Kings are looking to get back on their feet when they host Punjab Kings on Friday. With a largely inexperienced team at disposal and the likes of Dewald Brevis and MS Dhoni still recovering from injury, captain Ruturaj Gaikwad has said they are trying to keep the young team in a positive mindset.

Having always relied on experienced players, went for an overhaul in the mini-auctions ahead of the current season. Having missed a large chunk of previous season with an injury, this is again a fresh beginning of sorts for Gaikwad, who took over from Dhoni in 2024. “I think we didn’t have the best of squads last year. When I say that, no disrespect to any players. But, I think the combination didn’t just click the way we wanted. And then, obviously, the second year of the cycle, you just have limited options, limited pool available. And you try to fill in those gaps with whatever players available and hope that things will turn and things will fall in place. So, I think, yes, we might have missed out on few good players in the main auction that happened. As I said, it is a learning process. This year we tried to fix some of the places. A lot depends on how individuals click, how individuals play and perform as well,” Gaikwad said.

Indian Premier League (IPL) chairman Arun Dhumal has said ‘there is definitely less interest in some bilateral games’ and that they would seek a seat on the table when the Future Tours Programme cycle would be designed post-2027. Dhumal further argued that for the to move from 74 games at present to 94, and expand to 12 teams from the current 10, they would ‘really need a bigger window’. “It is a limited window between roughly mid-March and the end of May. As soon as June starts, the monsoon approaches the southern part of India, so there is no way you can extend at that point in time,” Dhumal told the Financial Times. :If we try to go from 74 to 94 games in the current window, we will end up having more double-headers. That does not work well for broadcasters. We have to look at their interests too. That is why we have restricted ourselves to 74 games.” (READ MORE)

The bait ball lurked. After blasting Cooper Connolly on his pads with a flat ball on leg stump, Rashid Khan pulled the length back a fraction, pushed the ball faster through the air and outside off stump. He could almost imagine the batsman’s response: a cut from the crease, either feathering an edge or dragging the ball onto the stumps. But Connolly imagined the unimagined. He shifted to the back foot but, instead of going horizontal, opened up his body and clubbed him down the ground with a sweet, straight bat-swing — front foot in the air, back foot pivoting like an axis. (READ MORE)

Chennai Super Kings talisman MS Dhoni suffered a setback ahead of his Indian Premier League return with a calf strain ruling him out of the first two weeks of the season, the franchise confirmed last week.

Josh Inglis, , Aaron Hardie, Praveen Dubey, Kuldeep Sen

Cooper Connolly (Rs 3 crore), Ben Dwarshuis (Rs 4.40 crore), Pravin Dubey (Rs 30 lakhs)

Powerplays have never been more frenetic than they have been in the last few years in the IPL since the introduction of the Impact Sub rule in 2023. The new-ball phase, with only two fielders outside the 30-yard circle, has become the most conducive platform for teams to go all gung-ho and set the stage for gargantuan scores. Sample this: Across all 18 previous editions of the until 2025, the overall tournament strike rate in a season crossed the 150-mark for the first time in 2024. That moved to an all-time high at 152.39 in 2025 across 73 matches, with 7887 Powerplay runs coming at a staggering 151.96 strike rate. Yet, none of them can match up to the chilling effect Suresh Raina produced 12 years ago in an emphatic Powerplay innings, single-handedly. (READ MORE)

MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson (traded in from ), Ayush Mhatre, Dewald Brewis, , Urvil Patel, Noor Ahmad, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, , Ramakrishna Ghosh, Mukesh Choudhary, Jamie Overton, Gurjapneet Singh, Anshul Kamboj

Chennai Super Kings vs Punjab Kings in Chennai on April 3

Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Chennai Super Kings in Bengaluru on April 5

Chennai Super Kings vs Delhi Capitals in Chennai on April 11

Chennai Super Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai on April 14

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Chennai Super Kings in Hyderabad on April 18

Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings in Mumbai on April 23

Gujarat Titans vs Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad on April 26

Chennai Super Kings vs Mumbai Indians in Chennai on May 2

Delhi Capitals vs Chennai Super Kings in Delhi on May 5

Chennai Super Kings vs Lucknow Super Giants in Chennai on May 10

Lucknow Super Giants vs Chennai Super Kings in Lucknow on May 15

Chennai Super Kings vs Sunrisers Hyderabad in Chennai on May 18

Chennai Super Kings vs Gujarat Titans in Chennai on May 21

Two seasons as captain. Rather one-and-a-half, due to an injury that ruled him out for a big part of the 2025 edition. If there is a current captain in the Indian Premier League with a thing or two to prove, it has to be Ruturaj Gaikwad. But before moving any further, there is a question that the captain has to answer himself: Is he the leader of this team? Not too long ago, Gaikwad had categorically said, ‘Sir, there is only one boss,’ in reference to MS Dhoni. (READ MORE)

For CSK’s first home game of IPL 2026 against PBKS, expect a high-scoring contest. Spinners will still get some help, but batters will enjoy themselves under the Chennai lights. Chepauk was once known as a spin-friendly fortress where CSK’s Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin would choke batters on slow, turning tracks. However, the pitch has changed over the years, and now it’s more of a batting paradise where the ball comes onto the bat nicely, and strokeplay is easy. Just recently, India scored 254 against Zimbabwe here in a T20 World Cup match.

CSK: Sanju Samson (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad (capt), Ayush Mhatre, Matt Short, , Sarfaraz Khan, Kartik Sharma, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmed, Matt Henry, Anshul Kamboj,

: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Cooper Connolly, (capt), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, , Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, , Yuzvendra Chahal