Indian Premier League: Prince Yadav Climbs to Third in Purple Cap Race After LSG Beat RCB

Lucknow Super Giants pacer Prince Yadav emerged as one of the biggest talking points of Thursday night’s IPL 2026 clash after his match-winning spell against Royal Challengers Bengaluru propelled him to third place in the tournament’s Purple Cap standings.

LSG defeated RCB by nine runs in a high-scoring encounter, and Prince played a decisive role with the ball. The young fast bowler struck early by dismissing star batter Virat Kohli for a second-ball duck with a superb delivery that immediately shifted momentum in Lucknow’s favour.

Prince finished the night with figures of three wickets, taking his tally for the season to 16 wickets. He is now level with Kagiso Rabada of Gujarat Titans and Eshan Malinga of Sunrisers Hyderabad, but edges ahead of both on economy rate.

Prince has maintained an economy of 8.08 this season, significantly better than Rabada’s 9.23 and Malinga’s 9.44, helping him secure third position on the leaderboard.

At the top of the Purple Cap standings remain Bhuvneshwar Kumar of RCB and Anshul Kamboj of Chennai Super Kings, both with 17 wickets. Bhuvneshwar had an opportunity to take sole possession of the lead but went wicketless against LSG.

Little Movement in Orange Cap Race

The Orange Cap standings saw fewer changes despite the thrilling contest. Kohli remained ninth on the run-scoring charts after failing to add to his tally of 379 runs this season.

However, Mitchell Marsh made a major leap in the rankings after smashing a sensational 111 off 56 balls against RCB. The explosive innings lifted the LSG all-rounder to 367 runs for the season and moved him up to 12th place.

The batting charts continue to be dominated by the SRH duo of Heinrich Klaasen and Abhishek Sharma. Klaasen leads the race with 494 runs, while Abhishek follows closely with 475.

KL Rahul of Delhi Capitals occupies third place with 445 runs, ahead of SRH wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan on 409 and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi of Rajasthan Royals, who has scored 404 runs so far this season.