17 Chait, Kathmandu. After Cooper Connolly hit a half-century on his debut match, Punjab Kings got off to a winning start in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026.

Punjab won 2 points by defeating Gujarat Titans by 3 wickets in Mullanpur on Tuesday. Punjab completed the target of 163 runs given by Gujarat with the loss of 7 wickets with 5 balls remaining.

The 22-year-old Australian all-rounder Connolly scored an unbeaten 72 runs in 44 balls with 5 fours and 5 sixes. Opener Prabhasimran Singh scored 37 runs. Captain Shreyas Iyer scored 18 runs.

Prasidh, who entered the field in the second innings as an impact sub, was bowled after 10 overs. He gave away only 3 runs in his opening 10 balls and took 3 wickets to put Punjab under pressure, but set batsman Connolly gave Punjab the win.

Washington Sundar, Kagiso Rabada, Ashok Sharma and Rashid Khan took 1 wicket each with 3 famous wickets.

After losing the toss and being invited to bat first, Gujarat scored 162 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. Gujarat started well but did not finish well.

Captain Shubman Gill scored 39 runs and Jas Buttler scored 38 runs. Gujarat, who were 84-2 in 10 overs, scored 78 runs in 10 more overs. Glen Phillips scored 25 and Washington Sundar scored 18 runs.

For Punjab, Vijay Kumar Waisak took 3 wickets with 34 runs in 4 overs. Yuzvendra Chahal took 2 wickets with 28 runs in 4 overs. Marco Jansen took 1 wicket after conceding 20 runs in 4 overs.

Delhi Capitals and Lucknow Super Giants will play in IPL on Wednesday.