Lucknow nipped Kolkata on the final delivery on Thursday night, yet two Knight Riders still climbed the run-scorers’ chart. With 15 IPL 2026 fixtures now in the book, the picture around the Orange and Purple Caps is starting to clear – a little.
Orange Cap snapshot
• Yashasvi Jaiswal (Rajasthan Royals) 170 runs
• Sameer Rizvi (Delhi Capitals) 160
• Angkrish Raghuvanshi (Kolkata Knight Riders) 155
• Heinrich Klaasen (Sunrisers Hyderabad) 138
• Ajinkya Rahane (Kolkata Knight Riders) 124
Raghuvanshi’s 45 off 30 balls against Lucknow Super Giants nudged him up to third. He is striking at 158.16 and, perhaps more tellingly, averaging 51.66 – handy numbers for a player who only turned 20 last month.
Skipper Rahane’s 41 from 24 was just as fluent. At 155 runs per hundred balls, he is scoring quicker than many expected. “KKR middle order short on confidence,” said former Australia captain Aaron Finch on television during the innings break, but Rahane looked anything but unsure while threading three boundaries through cover.
Heinrich Klaasen keeps fourth spot despite a quiet outing for Sunrisers, while Rajasthan’s left-hander Jaiswal continues to set the pace overall. Cooper Connolly (Punjab Kings) lurks just outside the top group with 108 from two visits to the crease, dismissed only once and scoring at 163.63 – numbers that will force their way into conversations soon enough.
Purple Cap watch
Ravi Bishnoi (Royals) remains out in front with seven wickets at 11.71 apiece. Gujarat Titans pair Prasidh Krishna (six wickets) and Rashid Khan (five) follow. Rashid’s 3 for 17 against Delhi hinted that last season’s lull may already be fading.
Seven other bowlers – among them Prince Yadav (Super Giants) and Vaibhav Arora (Knight Riders) – sit on five wickets. Arora’s 2 for 38 at Eden Gardens came in tough conditions for seamers and will encourage Kolkata’s coaching staff.
A few other figures worth bookmarking: the fastest strike rate currently belongs to Tristan Stubbs (196.29), while Nicholas Pooran has cleared the ropes 11 times – more than anyone else. Economy-wise, Mukesh Choudhary’s 6.12 is the stingiest to date, though it’s early days and a single poor over can wreck that number.
Next up for Kolkata is a trip to Ahmedabad. Whether that shaky middle order – still minus an in-form Shreyas Iyer – finds its feet could decide if Raghuvanshi and Rahane stay in the Cap conversation or merely decorate it for a week.
