- IPL 2026 opening games show high-scoring chases with teams winning after fielding first
- Strong performances from Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan
- Toss decisions and aggressive batting shaping early IPL results and predictions
The 16th IPL season started on 28th March, and promises a huge festival of cricket over the next two months. Reigning champs Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be looking to retain their title, but the other nine sides will have a lot to say in this tournament.
Game 1: Royal Challengers Bengaluru v Sunrisers Hyderabad
RCB won the toss and elected to field first. Hyderabad scored 201-9 in their 20 overs. Ishan Kishan top scored with 80 of 38 balls, and Aniket Verma added 43 off 18 balls. Pick of the RCB bowlers were Jacob Duffy with 3-22, and Romario Shepherd with 3-54.
RCB scored 203-4 in 15.4 overs to win the match by six wickets. Virat Kohli scored 69* off 38 balls, and Devdutt Padikkal scored an impressive 61 off 26 balls. David Payne was the pick of the Hyderabad bowling with 2-35 from his three overs.
Game 2: Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders
Mumbai won the toss and they also elected to field first. KKR scored an impressive 220-4 from their 20 overs. Ajinkya Rahane top scored with 67 off 40 balls, and Angkrish Raghuvanshi scored 51 off 29 balls. Pick of the Mumbai bowling was Shardul Thakur, with 3-39 from four overs.
However Mumbai started strongly as Ryan Rickelton (81 off 43) and Rohit Sharma (78 off 38) put on an opening partnership of 148 of 72 balls to give Mumbai a decent platform to go on and win the game by six wickets as they scored 224-4 with only five balls to spare.
Game 3: Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings
There seems to be a pattern emerging as Rajasthan Royals won the toss and also elected to field first. It certainly worked as the Royals bowled CSK out for only 127 in 19.4 overs. Jamie Overton was CSK’s top scorer with 43 off 36 balls. The wickets were shared out with Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger and Ravindra Jadeja each taking two.
It only took 12.1 overs for the Royals to get to 128-2 to win the match by eight wickets. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi scored 51 off only 17 balls, and his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 38* off 36. Anshal Kamboj took 2-27 from three overs.
Game 4: Punjab Kings v Gujarat Titans
The pattern of winning the toss and fielding first continued as the Punjab Kings did exactly that. The Titans scored 162-6 from their 20 overs, with Shubnam Gill top scoring with 39 off 27 balls, and Jos Buttler scored 38 off 33. Vyshak Vijaykumar took 3-34 in his four overs, and Yuzvendra Chahal took 2-28 as well.
The Punjab Kings’ innings was held together by Cooper Connolly, who scored 72 off 44 balls and Prabhsimran Singh chipped in with 37 off 24 balls, as the Punjab Kings scored 165-7 to win by three wickets. Prasidh Krishna took 3-29 as the pick of the bowlers.
Game 5: Lucknow Super Giants v Delhi Capitals
It must be something to do with the conditions as Axar Patel won the toss for the Delhi Capitals, and yet again they decided to field first.Lucknow failed to get going and they were bowled out for only 141 from 18.1 overs. Abdul Samad top scored with 36 off 25 balls, and Mitchell Marsh scored 35 off 28. The pick of the bowlers were Lungisani Ngidi with 3-27 from 3.4 overs, and T. Natarajan chipped in with 3-29 from his four overs.
Delhi were in a little bit of trouble, losing their first four wickets for on 26. However, Sameer Rizvi (70* off 47) and Tristan Stubbs (39* off 32) saw them home with an unbeaten 119 partnership to make the score 145-4 to win by six wickets with just under three overs to spare. Prince Yadav took 2-20 from three overs.
Game 6: Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Again, the side winning the toss decided to field first but KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane might have regretted that decision. He put Hyderabad into bat and they proceeded to score an impressive 226-8 from their 20 overs. Heinrich Klaasen scored 52 off 35 balls, and Abhishek Sharma (48 off 21)put on an 82-run partnership with Travis Head (46 off 21). Blessing Muzarabani was the pick of the bowlers with 4-41 from his four overs, with Vaibhav Arora getting 2-47.
KKR lost wickets at regular intervals as they struggled to 161 ao with four overs to spare. Angkrish Raghuvanshi scored a quick fire 52 off 29 balls, and Rinku Singh scored 35 off 25. Jaydev Unadkat took 3 -21 in three overs, with Eshan Malinga and Nitish Kumar Reddy combined to take four wickets for 31 runs.
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