PBKS vs DC IPL 2026 highlights: Delhi Capitals beat Punjab Kings by 3-wickets

David Miller scored a superb half-century but is gone now, and the wicket-taker is Ben Dwarshuis. This is turning into a humdinger of a contest. Madhav, who had a superb day with the ball earlier on, has come into the middle as we update that Ashutosh has hit a six and four. It must be said that the way conditions are playing, Delhi are the favourites here.

Axar Patel has scored a half-century here. What a lovely innings this has been from the Delhi Capitals skipper. He came in when the pressure was on, and he soaked it up nicely and countered. Punjab are looking at each other now. It is not their bowling; it is their batting which has not scored in the first innings. As we update, Stoinis has picked up Axar Patel.

That was poor running from Tristan Stubbs. Axar Patel did not move an inch while Stubbs was halfway down the track. He tried to return, and the direct hit got him run out. David Miller is the new man in the crease. Extremely important passage of the game. Also, Punjab has not used Chahal, yet they have to bring him in at some point.

Axar Patel has come into the middle, and it is a big innings for the Delhi Capitals skipper. Things have not gone to plan for the most part for him this season, but today, he has an opportunity to have a redemption of sorts. As of now, he needs to support Stubbs by letting him play at his normal pace, and Axar countering to keep up with the rate.

Yash Thakur bowled a stunning in-swinger to get rid of Abhishek Porel, who is playing his first game of the season. As we update, Arshdeep Singh has picked up KL Rahul. The ball took the top edge, and Marco Jansen took a nice catch. Well, Delhi is falling apart here. If they can see the swing, this is an exceptional batting wicket.

I'm really glad about the opportunity. Once I got this opportunity, I was just looking to make the use of the conditions because there's a bit of help for fast bowlers. I was just looking to hit the right areas. There was a bit of funny chat between me and Axar Bhai. So last time I was able to get one over here and for now he told me that I think you're going to go for four overs.  I mean there was a bit of help in the wicket. So I was like going for the length ball because it was not easy for the batsmen to hit from a length. As a batsman myself, I was just thinking if I hit the right areas with the help in the wicket, I'll be able to get some good overs for the team. Axar bhai was pretty chill and he just came to me and asked the fielding which I want. So it wasn't that we weren't looking at the scoreboard. I was just looking to execute my areas, execute my plans and that's it. It's quite wet here. The field is quite wet, the ball is skidding through and it's wet when the ball is coming well rolling. So it kind of skids off through your hands. (When asked about the dew)

Punjab Kings have lost a couple of wickets since our last update. First, it was Connolly who got undone by the slow bumper of the Madhav Tiwari, and then it was the Stonis who hit one straight to the cover fielder of Mitchell Starc. As we update Shashank Singh to have fallen, Mitchell Starc is on a hat-trick.

The power-hitting continues here at Dharamshala. Connolly has now joined the party. Both these have silently put on a 50-run stand for the Kings. It is a good partnership, but Connolly needs to kick on and up his strike rate here. The way conditions are playing out, Punjab might end up a few short here.

Punjab Kings have lost momentum in this innings. They have scored 50 runs from just three overs, and it took almost the next six overs to get the next 50. Shreyas Iyer too is not at his fluent best so far in this innings, and Cooper Connolly, who has walked into the middle, usually tends to take a bit of time to get going in his knock.

Mukesh Kumar has picked up the wicket of Prabhsimran Singh here. The batter was not looking as fluent as Priyansh Arya was. It was a short delivery from the bowler, and Prabhsimran just could not middle the ball, and it went straight to the fielder there. A nice breakthrough for the Delhi Capitals. Shreyas Iyer is the new batter in. Usually, he has batted at number four this season for the Kings, but today he has come at three. It might have to do with keeping the right-hand and left-hand combination going.

Amidst all the chaos from one end, Nabi has definitely found the right length for the surface and managed to deliver a tight fourth over. Mukesh Kumar has come into the attack, and he has been greeted with a six too. The ball is just flying here, and the way this surface is, the pitch is only going to get better. Unless Delhi keeps picking wickets with the start Punjab Kings have got here, they can end up with a pretty high score. It might not be the theme for this game, but also the other two games to follow as well, unless the curator decides to alter the surface.

22 runs have come of the first over here for the Punjab Kings. The ball is swinging for Mitchell Starc, but the conditions are such that, or the nature of the ground is such that the ball flies off the bat, and that is what has happened in that first over against Starc. The ball just flew off with the pace. Auqib Nabi was one of the five changes that have been made to the Delhi Capitals, and he has come into the attack here. He has had an exceptional domestic season, but the IPL thus far has not gone according to plan for him.

Honestly speaking, I've got no idea how the wicket has been playing so far in the IPL unless you play on it. So whatever comes, I think you've got to put your best foot forward and go ahead. Personally, I don't think you need to focus much on the points table. You focus on the smaller details you've been handling throughout the season: focusing on yourselves and the ability of every individual responsible for winning the matches. And just backing your instincts, I think that's what we've been lacking in the last couple of games: Players haven't been trusting their instincts, playing to their best ability, or handling the pressure. (On playing against Instinct) Not at all, it doesn't shift your mindset. It just teaches you a lot. And I feel in this particular tournament, there are going to be ups and downs and how quickly you turn back and get the best performance is what matters. Ben Dwarshius comes in place of Lockie Ferguson, who has a slight niggle.

Delhi Capitals Impact subs: Pathum Nissanka, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Tripurana Vijay

Punjab Kings Impact Subs: Harpreet Brar, Yash Thakur, Xavier Bartlett, Vishnu Vinod, Praveen Dubey

Prabhsimran Singh(w), Priyansh Arya, Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer(c), Suryansh Shedge, Marcus Stoinis, Shashank Singh, Marco Jansen, Ben Dwarshuis, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal

“Yes, absolutely. I feel we got a fairytale start in this tournament and everyone was in great space. And the mindset was top notch. I think it’s important that we stick to the same mindset. It’s easy to get diverted and talk negatively about things. But if we are going to continue with the same form, that’s not going to help us. But definitely we are going back and reflecting on things that we did not do well in particularly the last three matches. And see to it that we come back strong,” said Iyer while speaking in the post-match presentation.

"I think the runs were definitely below par, and at the same time, the spinners made quite a few mistakes. Looking at the way the pitch behaved, I feel the spinners did make errors. But at the same time, if you notice, we lost five wickets in two or three overs, and I think that's where the momentum slipped away from us. That's probably something we need to think about because the same thing happened against CSK. We started well, and then suddenly wickets kept falling," Patel said in the post-match presentation.

"For now, we'll go back and think about the mistakes we made. After that, obviously there's still a long journey ahead, and next year will come too. So we'll think about what plans we can make for next year and what approach we should take. Based on that, we can also look at the players sitting on the bench and decide who can be given opportunities and what changes we can make," Patel said in the post-match presentation.

After looking flawless in the tournament for the first seven games, the Punjab Kings have lost their third game in a row. Fielding is increasingly becoming a worrying sign for last year's finalists. Against Sunrisers Hyderabad, this was evident as their dropped chances for Heinrich Klaasen and Ishan Kishan proved to be the crucial moments that ultimately decided the game. On the contrary, coming off a loss, Hyderabad performed efficiently in all three departments.

Despite limitations in taking on pace with muscular hits, the flexible role worked until it stopped working this season. Axar has not batted in the same position in two consecutive innings, shuttling between No. 5 and 8.

Batting ahead of proven hard-hitters in Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Sameer Rizvi and veteran David Miller — who has now lost his spot in the XI — Axar has struggled for take-off at a time when relentless striking has set new standards.

A marked degeneration in his spin takedowns has made the floating role redundant. The left-hander dominated the middle-order slot in 2025, smashing spinners with 14 sixes and a strike rate of 179.28, the highest among all Delhi batters. In four innings this season, Axar has fallen twice to spin in 13 deliveries, scoring only 12 runs.

Axar has been in a frantic search for those missing 20 runs all year, across conditions and in different stripes of blue. He has gathered only 33 runs at 5.50 in seven IPL outings, 54 at 5.40 when extended to all T20 contributions since January.

"If you keep dropping catches, there is a sort of maybe a doubt created in the mind in terms of whether I can be, you know, I'm catching properly or am I taking the pressure, or I'm being too anxious, things like that come creeping,” he added.

“But I think all our players are well-equipped to handle pressure. Their exceptional fielding performance in the first half demonstrates this. So again, I think, you know, it's important that we go back and reflect on things as to how we can see we can have the right person at the right place or tweak it around because all players are good cricketers and good fielders. You cannot pick one and say, 'This is the guy who's been doing it, ' because the values created by Ricky (Head Coach Ricky Ponting) are that we support each other and back each other," Bahutule concluded.

"Fielding under lights is not easy because the ball comes out from the lights as well as from the crowd. And you know, the higher it goes, obviously, it's going to fall as quickly as possible, and gravity will obviously take its toll," Bahutule said at the post-match press conference.

"The bowlers have had to work hard and the batsmen have had to work hard also because they understand that 240 is what they need to get. We'll assess the conditions. I think tomorrow night you can expect to see exactly what we're seeing in every game at the moment - fast starts in the Powerplay and then teams working their way back into it in the middle overs and then the execution at the end will come down to which team does that best I think with the ball"