New Delhi, 08 May (H.S.):

Prince Yadav has injected fresh excitement into the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 Purple Cap race with a stellar bowling display. On Thursday, Lucknow Super Giants edged Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 9 runs, with Yadav playing a pivotal role.

Yadav claimed three wickets in the match, elevating his season tally to 16. He delivered the biggest blow by dismissing Virat Kohli for a golden duck on the second ball.

With 16 wickets, Yadav now occupies third place in the Purple Cap standings. He matches Kagiso Rabada and Ishan Malinga on wickets but edges ahead due to a superior economy rate of 8.08, compared to Rabada's 9.23 and Malinga's 9.44.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Anshul Kamboj jointly lead the race with 17 wickets each. However, Bhuvneshwar went wicketless against Lucknow.

Minimal Shifts in Orange Cap Standings

The Orange Cap race saw no major upheaval. Virat Kohli, out for a duck, remains ninth with 379 runs.

Mitchell Marsh leaped up with a blistering century off 56 balls, scoring 111 to reach 367 runs and claim 12th position.

Heinrich Klaasen tops the Orange Cap list with 494 runs, followed by Abhishek Sharma on 475. KL Rahul holds third with 445, Ishan Kishan fourth on 409, and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi fifth with 404.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar