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Arshdeep Singh’s fielding has been very poor this year, and once again, a big mistake from the Indian star caused Punjab Kings’ momentum to slip in a do-or-die encounter against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Royal Challengers Bangalore have dominated this edition of Tata IPL 2026. They currently top the points table and already have 16 points after playing just 12 matches this season. They have a fair chance of making the playoffs by finishing as one of the top two teams.
Tremendous misfielding by Arshdeep Singh gave a great start to Venkatesh Iyer
Venkatesh Iyer, who had already played ten balls in the innings, was not looking in the best form as he was not able to place the ball at the right place on the bat. However, Venky finally got his first boundary when Arshdeep misfielded Lockie Ferguson.
Arshdeep bent low and was late in assessing the ball; So, when Iyer attacked Ferguson with a cover drive, the ball slipped to his right and went towards the fence.
The momentum changed with the bat and then he drove Harpreet Brar to the boundary again and again. Venky also adopted an aggressive stance against Yuzvendra Chahal and hit him two sky-high sixes. Hence, Arshdeep’s miss resulted in the RCB batsman losing pace.
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Venkatesh Iyer scored the first half-century for RCB
Venkatesh Iyer has taken the important batting position in place of captain Rajat Patidar. The left-handed batsman has been instrumental in giving them a promising buildup during the middle overs after a good start to their innings.
The captain was removed due to possible injury scare, and hence, Jitesh Sharma started leading them as the stand-in captain. In such circumstances, Iyer stepped forward and after a slow start, hit the ball fearlessly and scored a brilliant half-century.
After Virat Kohli was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal, Iyer accelerated his innings in no time and continued the attack. This was only his fourth match for RCB this season and his first half-century for the Red Devils.
PBKS is highly dependent on Arshdeep Singh: Major reason behind PBKS’s bowling problems
Punjab Kings are clearly relying heavily on left-arm Indian fast bowler Arshdeep Singh, whose performances with the ball were one of PBKS’ biggest positives till last season. However, the seamer’s poor form has been a major concern this season.
Arshdeep has been irregular in the number of wickets he takes and has also been lacking
Also read: Harpreet Brar celebrates aggressively after uprooting the stump of Jacob Bettall in PBKS vs RCB match