PBKS vs GT Highlights, IPL 2026: Debutant Cooper Connolly announces himself in style; Snatches win from jaws of defeat

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: A brilliant start here by Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill. The two batters have looked solid and have also put away the loose balls. Kings need to find a way to break the partnership here.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Before this match, Arshdeep Singh had bowled 36 deliveries to Sai Sudharsan. In these deliveries, Sudharsan has scored 43 runs while being dismissed twice.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: GLORIOUS!!! Full delivery at the middle and leg. Gill just rolls his wrist over that and the ball runs away past the mid-on fielder for a boundary.

PBKS vs GT LIVE Score: In IPL 2025, Shubman Gill scored 282 runs off 197 deliveries. He had a strike rate of around 143 while averaging nearly 47. Those numbers give you an idea of how Gill will function here.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Shubman Gill is looking to assert himself early in this innings. Two boundaries off two balls for the GT captain. He is stepping out, his feet is moving and he is looking really good here.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: THERE IS THE FIRST BOUNDARY OF THE NIGHT!!! A bad delivery from Arshdeep and Sai Sudharsan was not going to let that go. Shortish delivery at the leg stump. Sai flicks it towards deep square leg for a boundary.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Arshdeep Singh has bowled 52 deliveries to Shubman Gill in IPL before this match. In these games he has dismissed the GT captain once while conceding 65 runs.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: So here we go… Arshdeep Singh with the ball for the Punjab Kings. Sai Sudharsan and Shubman Gill to start with the bat for the Titans.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: The impact substitutes for the two sides -

Punjab Kings: Priyansh Arya, Vishnu Vinod, Suryansh Shedge, Harpeet Brar, Praveen Dubey

Gujarat Titans: Prasidh Krishna, Kumar Kushagra, Manav Suthar, Jayant Yadav, Jason Holder

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: The playing XI of the two teams are here.

Gujarat Titans Playing XI: B Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Ashok Sharma, Mohammed Siraj

Punjab Kings Playing XI: Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Vyshak Vijaykumar

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Punjab Kings win the toss and they have opted to field first.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Gujarat Titans' biggest test against Punjab Kings tonight could be containing PBKS through the back half of the innings, especially if Shreyas Iyer's side gets a platform.

Notably, in IPL 2025, PBKS scored at 9.57 runs per over, the best rate in the tournament, and were the best death-overs batting side at 11.28 runs per over. So, while PBKS' challenge would be to contain GT's top order, GT's challenge would be the opposite.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Punjab Kings' biggest challenge against Gujarat Titans tonight could be stopping the match from settling around Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler.

Notably, GT averaged 193 runs per innings last season, and Gull, Sudharsan and Buttler together made 1,947 runs, accounting for roughly 70% of GT's batting runs. They lost only 12 wickets in the powerplay all season. So, if PBKS do not strike early, GT could control the tempo of the game from there.

PBKS vs GT LIVE Score: Three matches into IPL 2026, the impact substitute rule has already produced a split picture. Five teams have used an impact sub so far, while the Rajasthan Royals are the only side to win without needing one.

The best early return has come from Royal Challengers Bengaluru, whose switch from Jacob Duffy to Devdutt Padikkla turned a completed bowling spell into a batting surge, with Padikkal smashing 61 off 26 in the chase against SRH. CSK also got a positive swap on paper when Sarfaraz Khan replaced Ayush Mhatre and made 17 off 12, though it had little impact on the game's outcome.

Not every call has worked. Kolkata Knight Riders too a net hit when Finn Allen's 37 off 17 was followed by Kartik Tyagi's 1/43, while Sunrisers Hyderabad's late bowling switch also failed. So far, the rule has offered a tactical value, but only one change has truly swung the game.

PBKS vs GT LIVE Score: In the first three matches of IPL 2026, the powerplay has been the highest-scoring phase, accounting for 398 runs in 36 overs at 11.06 per over. But teams have also lost nine wickets there, or 1.5 wickets per innings, which shows sides are eager to take risks early.

The first middle phase (7-11 overs) has been the most stable phase. Teams have scored 289 runs at 9.63 runs per over while losing only seven wickets in six innings. The second middle phase (12-16 overs) has been where wickets have fallen fastest: 11 wickets in 25.5 overs, even though the scoring rate has still held up at 10.31. The death overs have gone at 10.55, with 6 wickets in 14.5 overs.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans are expected to keep fairly settled cores for tonight's clash.

PBKS Probable XI: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (c), Marcus Stoinis, Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marco Jansen, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Xavier Bartlett.

GT Probable XI: Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wk), Glenn Phillips, Washington Sundar, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna.
(impact subs depending on toss calls)

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans have taken slightly different routes in the IPL 2026 auction. PBKS made four buys for INR 8 crore, while GT picked up five players for INR 10.95 crore.

Punjab's auction was a bit tighter and more selective. Their two major spends were Ben Dwarshuis at INR 4.40 crore and Cooper Connolly at INR 3 crore, with Pravin Dubey and Vishal Nishad as low-cost Indian depth options. Gujarat, meanwhile, went a touch wider and heavier on overseas reinforcement, led by Jason Holder for INR 7 crore, with Tom Banton, Luke Wood, Ashok Sharma and Prithviraj Yarra completing their set of buys.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: At the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, the captains who won the toss had a clear edge in IPL 2025. Across five matches, the toss-winning side won four.

The bigger split comes from what the captains chose to do after winning the toss. Toss-winning captains chose to bat first three times and won all three matches. They chose to field first twice and split those games 1-1. So at this venue, the safer toss call seems to have been bat first.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: The Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh produced solid scoring in IPL 2025. Across five matches at the venue, the average first-innings score was 173, while the average second-innings score was 153.

The average winning score at the ground was 174. The venue also returned a run rate of around 9, while batters scored at 24 runs per wicket across the season. In short, the pitch was not a flat-out batting belter every night, but it was clearly good enough for strong totals, especially for sides setting a target.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans arrive at tonight's game with nothing separating them in the head-to-head. In their first six meetings, both teams had won three matches each, making this one of the cleaner even rivalries in the league right now. The two sides had met once before at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh, in IPL 2024, and Gujarat won that match by three wickets with five balls to spare.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Shreyas Iyer arrives in the 2026 season with one of the strongest records as captain. He has led his teams to 48 wins in 87 IPL matches, with 35 losses. More significantly, his captaincy journey has already produced a rare line in IPL history: he has led three different franchises to the final - Delhi Capitals in 2020, Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024 and Punjab Kings in 2025.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Shubman Gill has so far captained in 27 matches in the tournament. He has won 14 of these games and lost 13. That gives him a win percentage of 51.85, a number that looks steadier after a much better 2025 than his first season as full-time captain in 2024.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Gujarat Titans put together a solid league campaign in IPL 2025, finishing third on the points table with 18 points from 14 matches after nine wins and five defeats. The league campaign was driven by one of the best top-order seasons in the tournament, with Sai Sudarshan emerging as their leading run-scorer with 759 runs and Shubman Gill adding 650 more. Prasidh Krishna led their wicket charts with 25 wickets in a bowling attack that stayed competitive through the season. Gujarat, though, could not, carry that momentum deep into the playoffs. Their campaign ended in the Eliminator, where the Mumbai Indians knocked them out, leaving GT with a season that re-established their edge but still fell short of the title push.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Punjab Kings were one of the stories of IPL 2025. They finished top of the league table with 19 points, winning nine, losing four and drawing one, which earned them a direct place in Qualifier 1. It was their strongest league-stage finish in years, and it was driven by a side that finally looked balanced across batting and bowling. Shreyas Iyer led from the front with 604 runs throughout the season,while Arshdeep Singh finished as Punjab's leading wicket-taker with 21. Punjab lost Qualifier 1, but responded by beating the Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 2 to reach the final. There, their title push ended in the tightest possible way, a six-run defeat that left them runners-up after a season that had promised more.

Punjab Kings vs Gujarat Titans LIVE Score: Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Match 4 of IPL 2026, where Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans begin their campaigns in New Chandigarh. It is still early in the season, but opening nights have a way of shaping mood, momentum and questions. Punjab look to carry the momentum from last season, while the Titans aim to make a strong first impression.