IPL 2026: Shardul Thakur stars with four wickets as Mumbai Indians fight back against Punjab Kings

Highlights:

• Shardul Thakur picked up four wickets against PBKS
• He dismissed Prabhsimran Singh and Shreyas Iyer in one spell
• PBKS collapsed from a strong position during the middle overs
• Shardul returned to the MI side with a match-changing performance
• Punjab Kings still managed to post 200/8

Shardul Thakur produced a brilliant bowling performance for Mumbai Indians in their IPL 2026 clash against Punjab Kings at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium.

The experienced pacer finished with figures of 4/39 and completely changed the momentum of the game after Punjab Kings looked set for a huge total.

Punjab Kings had started strongly with opener Prabhsimran Singh attacking the Mumbai bowlers. He reached his half-century in just 29 balls and helped PBKS cross 100 in 11 overs.

At that stage, Mumbai Indians were struggling to control the scoring rate. However, Shardul stepped in and quickly turned the game around.

His first major breakthrough came when he dismissed Prabhsimran. The batter had just hit another six but mistimed the next big shot and was caught in the deep.

Just a few balls later, Shardul struck again by removing Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer. Iyer had started positively with a boundary, but Shardul bowled a delivery that moved back sharply and hit the stumps.

The wickets triggered a collapse for Punjab Kings.

Shardul continued his impressive spell by dismissing Suryansh Shedge, who was caught after trying to rotate the strike. Later, he completed his four-wicket haul by bowling out Marco Jansen.

His spell helped Mumbai Indians pull back the game after PBKS had looked comfortable for most of the innings.

Despite Shardul’s strong bowling performance, Punjab Kings recovered late in the innings thanks to quick runs from Azmatullah Omarzai, Xavier Bartlett, and Vishnu Vinod.

PBKS eventually finished on 200/8 after 20 overs.

Still, the biggest talking point from the innings remained Shardul’s return to form. Back in the Mumbai Indians playing XI, the Indian pacer delivered one of his best spells of the season and reminded everyone of his ability to break partnerships under pressure.