Sunday tossed up two lively contests, and with them a fair bit of shuffling on the Orange and Purple Cap charts in IPL 2026.
Purple Cap – bowlers first
Anshul Kamboj still wears the cap thanks to his 13 wickets, yet it was Prince Yadav who stole the limelight. On a belter in Mullanpur that yielded 454 runs, the Punjab Kings all-rounder came away with 2 for 25 – tidy by any measure, exceptional in context. That spell moved him to 11 wickets, level with Gujarat Titans pace spearhead Prasidh Krishna but a shade ahead on economy.
“I’m just trusting the yorker and mixing in the slower one,” Prince said afterwards. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but you keep going.”
Rajasthan Royals leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi slipped into fifth with his tenth wicket of the season after nicking out Andre Russell at Eden Gardens. Bishnoi, characteristically understated, noted, “One good ball can change a match; that’s the only thing on my mind.”
Behind the leading trio sit Bhuvneshwar Kumar (RCB) on 10 and Bishnoi on 10, while Jofra Archer and Kartik Tyagi have eight apiece – Tyagi’s 3 for 22 against the Royals a gentle reminder of what he can do when the length behaves.
Orange Cap – run-getters hold firm
No fresh leader here: Heinrich Klaasen (Sunrisers), Shubman Gill (Titans) and Virat Kohli (RCB) keep the top three spots. The notable mover is Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, back up to fourth after a workmanlike 46 at the top for Rajasthan. The left-hander joked, “I’d have swapped those runs for two extra points, but that’s cricket.”
Punjab’s Cooper Connolly is warming to Indian conditions. A breezy 87 from 46 lifted him to joint-sixth on 223 runs, level with Yashasvi Jaiswal. Partner-in-mayhem Priyansh Arya hammered 93 in just 37 balls, becoming the 15th man this term to cross 200.
Quick numbers
• Highest strike-rates: Klaasen (202), Arya (199)
• Most sixes: Klaasen 27, Connolly 24
• Best economy (min 10 overs): Kamboj 6.72, Archer 7.05
Those figures will shift again; that’s half the fun.
What it means
Kings’ 54-run win nudged them into the top half of the table, Lucknow left to ponder how 400-plus totals are suddenly chaseable yet still daunting. Kolkata’s defeat keeps their season see-sawing, while Rajasthan bank the two points and, crucially, maintain their net-run-rate cushion.
Former India coach Gary Kirsten summed matters up neatly on TV: “It’s early, but you already sense the trend – bat deep, bowl smart. The sides that manage both will still be alive come May.”
Plenty of cricket left, plenty more reshuffling to come. For now, Prince Yadav enjoys a deserved spot among the purple elite – and given the way he’s bowling, he might just hang around there a while.
