Australian-powered unbeaten Punjab Kings put on a super show with Cooper Connolly smashing 87 in their latest IPL victory
Cooper Connolly has delivered a spectacular display of clean hitting to help propel the Ricky Ponting-coached Punjab Kings to another rampant victory in their unbeaten Indian Premier League campaign.
The giant scoreboard at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium in New Chandigarh flashed up the legend ‘Super Duper Cooper’ on Sunday as the Perth left-hander bludgeoned 87 off just 46 balls in the Kings’ assault on the Lucknow Super Giants’ attack.
Extraordinarily, the 22-year-old made only 19 from his first 22 deliveries while his partner Priyansh Arya (93 off 37) was going berserk at the other end.
“At 19 off 22, there was a little bit of panic stations,” admitted Connolly. “But I just tried to compose myself … then a couple of nice shots hit the middle, and I started to get going.”
He certainly did, even nearly catching his super-charged partner as they launched a partnership of 182 in just 13 overs. Between them, they hit five sixes off one Aiden Markram over that went for 32, including three in a row from Connolly.
With Marcus Stoinis blasting 29 off 16 at the death, Punjab’s 7-254 was the highest score of the IPL season.
Lucknow were never in the hunt, with Mitch Marsh still well behind the rate early on despite his 40 off 28 balls.
Xavier Bartlett went for 54 off his wicketless four overs but took a couple of catches as the Kings kept Justin Langer’s Lucknow down to 5-200 for a 54-run victory. It extended their lead at the top of the IPL standings to three points.
Earlier, at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, Cameron Green at last felt that winning feeling as the Knight Riders lifted themselves off the bottom of the table.
Fresh from his top score of the season (79) in Ahmedabad two days earlier, Green and the Knight Riders got what they really wanted – a first win of the season at the seventh attempt, over Rajasthan Royals.
Green (0-27) did, though, deliver one horror over in the Powerplay which featured four wides and was tonked for 22, including sixes from wonder boy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (46 off 28) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (39 off 29).
But after Rajasthan, having decided to bat, mustered only 9-155, Green helped KKR gain some equilibrium after they’d plummeted to 2-5 off just eight balls in reply, coming in to crack 27 off 13 balls.
But he was undone by a magical stumping by Dhruv Jurel down the legside off Ravi Bishnoi and KKR made heavy weather of the chase until a brilliant 53no off 34 balls from Rinku Singh saw them home by four wickets on 6-161.
IPL 2026 standings
Australians in IPL 2026
Chennai Super Kings: Matt Short ($255k), Spencer Johnson ($255k, replaces Nathan Ellis ($340k))
Delhi Capitals: Mitchell Starc ($2m)
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Josh Hazlewood ($2.13m), Tim David ($510k)
Punjab Kings: Marcus Stoinis ($1.9m), Ben Dwarshuis ($745k), Mitchell Owen ($510k), Cooper Connolly ($510k), Xavier Bartlett ($136k)
Kolkata Knight Riders: Cameron Green ($3.5m)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins ($3.5m), Travis Head ($2.38m), Jack Edwards ($510k, withdrawn)
Lucknow Super Giants: Josh Inglis ($1.49m), Mitchell Marsh ($578k)
