Shreyas Iyer was blunt in his post-match assessment: Punjab Kings had posted enough runs. Even so, Rajasthan Royals completed a tense six-wicket chase at Mullanpur on Tuesday, handing PBKS their first loss of the IPL 2026 campaign. PBKS finished on 222/4 after being put into bat first, buoyed by a late surge from Marcus Stoinis that helped them reach a score capable of tightening the screws on any side chasing. Rajasthan’s response, however, kept the chase alive from the first innings phase through to the closing overs, with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal doing the early work before the finishing duo of Donovan Ferreira and Shubham Dubey took control at the death.
Speaking after the match, Iyer stressed that the total should have been more than competitive. “I thought the 224 on the board was a brilliant score,” he said. “Kudos to the batters, the way they came up, and they went against the bowlers. I think it was an exceptional performance, especially on this wicket, which was a bit tacky and slow.” In other words, the conditions and the dimensions of the venue were not where PBKS felt they fell short. Iyer made it clear the belief inside the camp was that the batting effort had created a platform that could carry them to the finish on a surface that didn’t always allow the ball to skid through cleanly.
The real issue, in Iyer’s view, arrived when PBKS had to defend. “I think we fell a bit short in our bowling in terms of execution,” he said. “We had planned to pull off slower ones, execute yorkers, I think we fell a bit short over there.” While PBKS did manage brief periods of control during the chase through spin, key wickets and moments slipped away when Rajasthan needed them least.
Yuzvendra Chahal struck at crucial junctures, and Harpreet Brar—playing his first match of the season—also made an impact with a disciplined spell that helped PBKS regain command. But Rajasthan’s middle order and the lower-middle order refused to freeze. Ferreira and Dubey absorbed the pressure, then shifted gears once PBKS missed their lengths, attacking the pace options and turning the final stretch into a chase that gradually moved beyond reach for the defending side. Iyer singled out the partnership as the turning point. “They had a tremendous partnership in the middle, especially by Ferreira and Shubham Dube coming in and scoring those crucial runs at the end,” he said.
When asked whether bowling concerns were something that had been building, Iyer chose his language carefully, though his message stayed consistent. He referenced how T20 cricket has evolved, with batters increasingly taking the game to bowlers from the very first ball they face. “This is the format where I feel that a lot of players have changed their game, and when they come in, they go bang from ball one,” he said. “So it’s an arduous task for bowlers to come with a certain plan, but at the end of the day, I feel it’s all about execution.”
Despite the end of PBKS’ unbeaten run, Iyer urged against any sense of immediate panic. He acknowledged the speed of scheduling and the travel that followed, but he did not allow fatigue to become an excuse. “We had a match, we had to travel and then come and play another game. So I think the body was also a bit fatigued, but that can’t be the reason over here,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of days to refresh, go back to the drawing board and come back strong.”
One clear positive for PBKS, in Iyer’s eyes, was Brar’s outing. “Hats off to him, the way he kept his approach and his attitude throughout this game,” he said. The defeat also came at a specific logistical moment for the franchise, with this being PBKS’ final match in Mullanpur during IPL 2026. The team will now shift to Dharmashala for their upcoming home fixtures, and when Iyer was asked what the change of venue would mean, he offered a straightforward answer. “Nothing, just win.”
