Harpreet Brar broke Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s start twice in the 61st match of IPL 2026, dismissing Jacob Bethell in the third over and Devdutt Padikkal in the 10th as Punjab Kings chose to field first in Dharamshala on May 17, 2026.
Bethell, who made 11 off 7 balls, chopped a quicker fuller delivery back onto his stumps, with the ball timed at 96.3 kph. Padikkal lasted longer and looked in control on 45 off 25 balls before Shreyas Iyer caught him at cover, leaving Brar with figures of 2/35 at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium.
Those wickets did not stop Bengaluru from building a strong total. Virat Kohli anchored the innings with 58 off 37 balls, hitting four boundaries and three sixes, while the side was 157/3 at the end of 15 overs and had reached 50 in 5.1 overs. Venkatesh Iyer was unbeaten on 38 off 22 balls as the innings kept its pace through the middle and late overs.
The scoreline also showed the strain on Punjab’s attack outside Brar. Yuzvendra Chahal conceded 42 runs in his three overs, and Lockie Ferguson went at 12 an over, leaving the home side reliant on Brar’s control to slow a chase of momentum that Bengaluru kept pushing despite losing two wickets to the left-armer.
Brar’s spell mattered because it interrupted two separate phases of the innings: the early push and the middle-overs hold. But with Kohli still at the crease for most of the first 15 overs and Bengaluru continuing to score, Punjab’s challenge remained larger than one bowler’s success. The match turned into a test of whether those two wickets would be enough to stop a total that kept growing anyway.
