NEW DELHI: Punjab Kings batter Shashank Singh was again pulled into the spotlight for the wrong reasons as another catching miss marred the IPL 2026 contest between Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday. The incident happened early in the innings, when Shashank failed to hold a routine chance of KL Rahul off Arshdeep Singh’s bowling in the third over.
Placed at deep square leg, Shashank had the ball coming into his hands, but he grassed a sitter. Rahul had pulled a short delivery from Arshdeep and struck it straight in the direction of the fielder; instead of being taken cleanly, the opportunity was dropped and the ball raced away to the boundary. The lapse immediately drew visible frustration from Arshdeep Singh, who reacted sharply at the missed chance, while Punjab Kings co-owner Preity Zinta was also seen responding with evident annoyance.
As the moment unfolded, the broadcast also zoomed in on Punjab Kings head coach Ricky Ponting in the dugout. Ponting appeared visibly upset, hands on his head, as the side let go of an early wicket. Rahul, having been reprieved after being dropped on 12, made full use of that second chance and pushed Delhi’s momentum forward, moving to a half-century off just 26 balls.
The dropped catch proved costly for Punjab in more ways than one. Rahul’s innings also marked the fourth time he has reached 35 runs or more from the first 15 deliveries of an IPL innings, with two previous such knocks coming in 2018 and another in 2019. Those starts have often set the tone for his innings, and this time the reprieve allowed him to keep accelerating.
Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel won the toss and opted to bat against table-toppers Punjab Kings. The two teams made no changes from their prior match-ups: Delhi, currently placed sixth in the standings, stayed with the same XI, while Punjab Kings—who sit at the top of the table with five wins from six games—also retained their lineup.
Teams:
Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (C), KL Rahul, Pathum Nissanka, Sameer Rizvi, Nitish Rana, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar.
Punjab Kings: Shreyas Iyer (C), Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Cooper Connolly, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal.
