IPL Bench

 Halfway through IPL 2026, the playoff picture is becoming clearer — and for some teams, much darker. A viral post by @Gaurav_7887 on X has captured exactly where every team stands heading into the business end of the season. The numbers are brutal for some, comfortable for others, and for one team — mathematically near impossible. Here is the complete breakdown of what every team needs to reach the IPL 2026 playoffs. The Playoff Math — All 10 Teams The 2026 IPL season has reached a clear divide at the halfway stage, with PBKS, RCB, and RR emerging as the dominant favourites while traditional heavyweights like MI and KKR face a near impossible path to the playoffs. 1. Punjab Kings — Need 2 Wins from 7 Matches The easiest qualification task in the tournament. Punjab Kings lead the points table and remain unbeaten after seven matches. Cricket Times Two wins from their remaining seven fixtures will almost certainly book their playoff spot. PBKS have been the tournament's best tea...

 There are overs that change the momentum of a match. And then there are overs that break a team completely — body, spirit, and scorecard all at once. The 12th over of Delhi Capitals' innings against Punjab Kings on April 25, 2026 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium was the second kind. Xavier Bartlett ran in to bowl. Nitish Rana was waiting. What happened next was not cricket. It was a demolition. Ball by Ball — The Over That Changed Everything Nitish Rana took complete control and smashed Xavier Bartlett for a massive 28 runs in the over — two sixes and four boundaries as Punjab Kings suddenly found themselves under serious pressure, a rare sight this season. Here is exactly what happened, ball by ball: Ball 1 — SIX Full ball in the slot outside off. Rana gets into position, loads up, and hammers it flat over deep extra cover. Not a slog. A calculated, brutal strike that cleared the rope with plenty to spare. Ball 2 — FOUR Bartlett tries to adjust. Rana punishes the adjustment. ...

Stop whatever you are doing. Open JioHotstar. Watch this innings. Right now — April 25, 2026 — at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi, KL Rahul is playing one of the greatest innings in the 19-year history of the Indian Premier League. 152 not out. 67 balls. Happening live. Right now. The Innings That is Breaking Records KL Rahul scored his 6th IPL century against Punjab Kings — a knock that has taken Delhi Capitals to an enormous total at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Match 35 of IPL 2026. But a century was just the beginning. Rahul kept going. And going. And going. 152 not out off 67 balls. A strike rate of 226. This is not just batting. This is batting from another dimension. Rahul punished everything outside the off stump. He was dropped early by Shashank Singh at deep square leg — and made Punjab Kings pay for that drop in the most brutal way possible.  Who Dropped Him — The Drop That Will Haunt PBKS KL Rahul got a massive reprieve early in his innings. Arshdeep Singh bowled...

He was dropped on a golden duck. First ball. Kagiso Rabada beat him completely and the ball flew through to the keeper — only for Jos Buttler to spill it. A gift. A life. Virat Kohli does not waste gifts. What followed over the next 43 deliveries was a batting masterclass from a 37-year-old who keeps finding new ways to remind you that he is different from everyone else who has ever played this game. Kohli scored a scintillating 81 off 44 balls — 8 fours and 4 sixes at a strike rate of 184 — anchoring RCB's successful pursuit of 206 and etching his name into the history books with multiple landmark achievements. RCB won by 5 wickets. Kohli was Player of the Match. And IPL 2026 had its most complete batting performance yet. The Records That Fell Last night at Chinnaswamy was not just a good innings. It was a history-making evening. Kohli became the first player in IPL history to hit 800 fours — a boundary-hitting milestone that no other batter in the tournament's 19-year histo...

Tonight at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Royal Challengers Bengaluru host Gujarat Titans. It looks like a regular IPL fixture. It is anything but. Because if RCB lose tonight, the IPL 2026 points table becomes the most chaotic, unpredictable, wide-open battlefield this tournament has seen in years. One result. One evening. One potential earthquake in the standings. Here is what happens if RCB lose tonight. What Happens if RCB Lose Tonight If GT beat RCB tonight at Chinnaswamy, everything changes. RCB drop to 8 points from 7 matches — same as SRH but with one more game played. Their NRR advantage matters but the gap between third and seventh place suddenly becomes razor thin. GT climb to the middle of the table with momentum. CSK, just one win behind RCB, are suddenly breathing down their necks. SRH, DC, LSG — all teams with games in hand — can leapfrog RCB with a single win. In one evening, RCB go from comfortable third to a team looking anxiously over their shoulder....

Seven matches. Zero appearances. A calf injury that has kept the most important player in CSK's history sitting in the dugout in yellow civilian clothes while his teammates take the field without him. And yet — Chennai Super Kings are fifth in the IPL 2026 points table, climbing rapidly, winning matches convincingly, and looking more dangerous with every game. So here is the question that every CSK fan is quietly asking themselves right now. Is CSK ready to leap forward without MS Dhoni? The Numbers — CSK Without Dhoni in IPL 2026 CSK have played 7 matches in IPL 2026, winning 3 and losing 4, with 6 points and a positive net run rate of +0.118.  But look at the trend more carefully. CSK lost their first four matches without Dhoni — a disastrous start that had fans panicking. Then something changed. They won three of their last four matches, including a 103-run demolition of Mumbai Indians at Wankhede — their biggest win of the season. The team that looked broken in March look...

Some innings win you a match....  Some innings define a player.....  And some innings do both at the same time..... Sanju Samson's 101 not out at the Wankhede Stadium last night belongs in that last category. It was not just a century. It was a one-man rescue mission, a history-making knock, and a statement that CSK have found the match-winner they traded Ravindra Jadeja to get. The Innings — 101 Not Out off 54 Balls While his teammates found it difficult to accelerate, Samson took the responsibility on his shoulders, dominating the bowling attack to smash a historic century which came off just 54 balls. He reached the milestone in style on the final delivery of the innings, pulling a boundary off Krish Bhagat to remain unbeaten on 101, helping Chennai post a formidable total of 207. CSK's batting revolved around their new talisman — their second-highest score was 22. Let that sink in. In a total of 207, Samson scored 101. Every other CSK batter combined for 106 runs. He did ...

Tonight at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, two of IPL 2026's most interesting teams collide. Royal Challengers Bengaluru — defending champions, in-form, playing at home — host Lucknow Super Giants, a team with dangerous bowling but a batting lineup that is yet to fire consistently. Match 23 of IPL 2026 begins at 7:30 PM IST. And as always at Chinnaswamy, the boundaries are short, the crowd is electric, and the bowlers have nowhere to hide. Here are the key battles that will decide tonight's match. Battle 1 — Virat Kohli vs Mohammed Shami This is the marquee matchup of the evening — and the numbers from the official IPL stat card tell a fascinating story. In IPL history, Kohli has faced Shami across 77 balls, scoring 107 runs with a strike rate of 139. But Shami has dismissed Kohli 5 times — with 17 fours and zero sixes allowed. No sixes. Against Virat Kohli. That tells you everything about how Shami has bowled to him. If LSG are to survive the powerplay, Shami must s...

Every CSK home game at Chepauk this season has carried the same question. The one question that 50,000 yellow-clad fans ask before the toss, before the playing XI, before anything else. Will Thala play tonight? Tonight — April 14, 2026 — as Chennai Super Kings take on Kolkata Knight Riders at MA Chidambaram Stadium, that question is louder than ever.   The Current Situation MS Dhoni is still recovering from a calf injury. The Chennai Super Kings management is taking a cautious approach and is unlikely to rush him back without complete fitness. There was a brief moment of hope for fans yesterday. Dhoni was spotted having a hit in the nets on the eve of the game, getting throwdowns from Michael Hussey. For CSK fans, any Dhoni sighting in the nets is enough to set social media on fire. But the reality is more measured. The session was not at full intensity, suggesting that while he is improving, he may still need more time before being fully ready for competitive action....

At 8:00 PM on April 13, 2026, Praful Hinge had 6,000 Instagram followers. At 8:07 PM, he bowled the most extraordinary first over in the 19-year history of the Indian Premier League. By the next morning, he had 387,000 followers. Seven minutes. One over. Six deliveries. A life changed forever.   The Over That Made History Sunrisers Hyderabad debutant Praful Hinge etched his name into the record books, becoming the first bowler in the 19-year history of the IPL to claim three wickets in the opening over of an innings. The scorecard of that over reads like something from a dream: 1, W, 0, W, 0, W. Hinge got the big wicket of young sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi on the second ball — a hard length delivery that rushed the left-hander into action and the ball went straight up. He then dismissed Dhruv Jurel on a 2-ball duck on the 4th delivery.  Pretorius was caught on the final ball. Rajasthan Royals — the table-toppers, unbeaten in the season — slipped to 9 for 5...

At 128 for 7.  Chasing 182.  16 overs gone. 54 runs needed off 24 balls. Any other team would have surrendered. Any other player at number seven on just his third IPL appearance would have blocked and hoped for the best. Mukul Choudhary had other ideas.   What Happened at Eden Gardens KKR were firm favourites — they had an 86% chance of beating LSG after 36 overs in the game. But Choudhary flipped the script and overpowered the hosts. The night belonged to Mukul Choudhary, who cracked an unbeaten 54 off just 27 balls. His fiery knock included 7 huge sixes and 2 fours at a daunting strike rate of 200. When Vaibhav Arora tried to york him, Choudhary helicoptered the seamer over long-on. "MS Dhoni, eat your heart out! The helicopter shot is back," Faf du Plessis raved on commentary. With 13 needed off the last over, with the Eden Gardens crowd roaring for KKR, the 21-year-old stood at the crease and did what finishers do. He hit. He ran. He won. LSG made...

Last night at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Tushar Deshpande walked into bowl the final over with Gujarat Titans needing 11 runs to win. He nailed one yorker after another in the middle to stun Ahmedabad — a death-bowling masterclass that gave Rajasthan Royals a famous six-run victory. The cricket was breathtaking. But for CSK fans watching, it was something else entirely. It was painful.   The Man CSK Let Go Chennai Super Kings trusted Tushar Deshpande to perform the role that Dwayne Bravo once did for them. Because Deshpande had defensive skills that could often turn a batter's strength into a weakness. CSK played him for three seasons — 2022, 2023 and 2024. He picked up 39 wickets in 31 matches for CSK including a four-wicket haul. He was their most consistent pacer across those two seasons. Their Bravo replacement. Their death-overs answer. And they released him. Last night, Jofra Archer and Tushar Deshpande executed a death-bowling masterclass for R...