IPL 2026: Kohli, Rahul Shine as Orange Cap Race Heats Up; Bhuvneshwar Leads Purple Cap Standings

Kathmandu. Some batsmen have performed excellently for their respective teams in the matches played on Sunday under the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026. In the first match on Sunday, Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Punjab Kings, while in the second match, Delhi Capitals registered a victory over Rajasthan Royals. With these matches, the race for the 'Orange Cap' given to the highest run-scorer in the ongoing season and the 'Purple Cap' given to the highest wicket-taker has become more interesting.

In the match where Bengaluru defeated Punjab, Virat Kohli contributed 58 runs off 37 balls and Cooper Connolly contributed 37 runs off 22 balls. With these runs, Kohli has moved up to third place in the race for the Orange Cap with 542 runs this season. He is only a few runs behind Gujarat Titans' openers Sai Sudharsan (554 runs) and Shubman Gill (552 runs). On the other hand, Connolly has reached the eighth position with 473 runs.

In another match on Sunday where Delhi defeated Rajasthan, Vaibhav Surwanshi played an innings of 46 runs off 21 balls, while KL Rahul scored 56 runs off 42 balls. With these runs, Rahul has secured his name in fourth place with 533 runs, pushing Sunrisers Hyderabad's Heinrich Klaasen to fifth place and just behind Kohli. Similarly, Surwanshi is in sixth place with 486 runs.

In bowling, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been in excellent form this season. In the match against Punjab, he continued his sharp bowling, sending openers Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh to the pavilion in the first and third overs respectively. Although Bhuvneshwar, who took 2 wickets for 38 runs in the match, has proven to be a bit expensive this season, his wicket tally has reached 24.

He is 3 wickets ahead of Gujarat's Kagiso Rabada (21 wickets) and 5 wickets ahead of Chennai Super Kings' Anshul Kamboj in the race for the Purple Cap.

In the match on Sunday evening, Jofra Archer signaled his return to form by taking 2 wickets for 35 runs. Archer, who took only 2 wickets in the previous three matches, has made a good comeback in the game.

With these two wickets, Archer has moved up to fourth place in the Purple Cap standings with 17 wickets. He is one wicket ahead of four other bowlers who have 16 wickets.