Franchise Cricket

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Captain Shreyas Iyer's unbeaten 69 from 33 balls led Punjab Kings to a clinical six-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad as they chased their target of 220 with seven balls to spare.

Punjab made a flying start as openers Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya added 99 in 6.2 overs, with the latter pummelling a 16-ball fifty.

Sunrisers dragged back some control when both batters were dismissed in quick succession by Shivang Kumar, who took 3-33, but Shreyas' counter-attacking knock swung the momentum back in Punjab's favour.

Shashank Singh clubbed an unbeaten 16 to go with his crucial spell of 2-20 which halted the Sunrisers' progress after their openers also made a rapid start.

Sunrisers were on course for a huge total as Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head added 120 in eight overs, with the former smashing eight sixes in his 74 from 28 balls.

But Shashank removed both in the space of three balls and Sunrisers' progress stalled, with Heinrich Klaasen's 39 from 33 the next highest contribution as they made 219-6.

The result sees Punjab remain second in the table and was also their ninth chase of 200 or more in the history of the IPL, which is a tournament record.

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Kusal Mendis' fine form continued as Peshawar Zalmi beat Lahore Qalandars by 76 runs in the Pakistan Super League.

Sri Lanka batter Mendis whacked 74 from 48 balls, with five fours and four sixes, to set up Zalmi's 173-7, backing up his 109 in their previous match against Karachi Kings.

Mendis was supported Babar Azam's 43 and a cameo of 21 from 10 balls from New Zealand's Michael Bracewell, while Lahore skipper Shaheen Shah Afridi's fine spell of 3-22 was in vain.

Bracewell also took 3-18 as Lahore were skittled for just 97 in reply, with Fakhar Zaman and Abdullah Shafique top-scoring with 21 each.

The result takes Zalmi to the top of the PSL table with four wins from five, while Lahore are sixth.

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England and Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter Phil Salt's struggles at the top of the order continued as he fell to international team-mate Jofra Archer from the first ball of the match against Rajasthan Royals.

He was beaten for pace by Archer and top-edged to keeper Dhruv Jurel, which set the tone for Royals' six-wicket win in Guwahati.

Salt has scored 54 runs in three innings for RCB, with 46 of them coming in one knock, and averaged 16.25 across eight games in the preceding T20 World Cup which took place in India and Sri Lanka.

It is understandable why RCB would want to stick with Salt, who formed an effective opening partnership with Virat Kohli in last year's title-winning campaign when the pair scored 565 runs in 13 innings together, at a strike-rate of 174.3.

However, it could soon become difficult to ignore the other Englishman in RCB's ranks.

Jacob Bethell, 22, has remained on the bench so far, having found himself in a similar position in 2025 by making just two appearances for the franchise.

Bethell's lack of game time saw him struggle early in the UK summer but then went on a stunning run of form by scoring international centuries in all three formats - the most recent being his magnificent century against India in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup.

England's Jordan Cox is also in RCB's squad as a spare batter, but considering Bethell's recent exploits, he is the most likely candidate if they decide to rotate the squad.

RCB next play against Mumbai Indians on Sunday and the tight turnaround could give Salt another opportunity, but he likely needs to fire soon.

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Rawalpindiz remain winless in the Pakistan Super League after they suffered a 61-run thrashing by Quetta Gladiators.

Quetta posted 182-6 as Rilee Rossouw top-scored with 53 from 42 balls, having added 87 for the second wicket with Saud Shakeel, who made 42.

Cameos of 39 from Hasan Nawaz and 21 not out from Jahandad Khan pushed Quetta to a competitive total, which proved far too much for the horribly out-of-form Rawalpindiz.

Mohammad Rizwan was dismissed first ball to set the tone for the chase, shortly followed by Usman Khawaja who was run out for seven.

Sam Billings fell for one to kickstart a middle-order collapse of three wickets for no runs, leaving Rawalpindiz 82-7, before they slumped to 121 all out in 17.3 overs.

The win keeps Quetta comfortably in the middle of the PSL table with two wins from five, while Rawalpindiz are bottom with Hyderabad Kingsmen also yet to register their first win.

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