Bangalore brought their A game on Monday May 14 as they bowled Punjab out for a paltry 88 runs. They then chased the total down in 8.1 overs and romped to a 10-wicket win.

Yadav proved key once again for Bangalore, as he has been with the new ball throughout the tournament. He is their highest wicket-taker in IPL 2018 so far with 17 wickets from 12 matches. He got the key wickets of Punjab openers Chris Gayle and KL Rahul as well as Andrew Tye.

A disappointed Ravichandran Ashwin, the Punjab captain, was particularly hard on his batsmen. “It wasn’t a professional effort at all. That’s been the story. It’s the bowlers who have got us the points. We’ve to try and make sure we lift ourselves,” he said. “Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis and others who we have been trying out are all very good batsmen. We hope that they come good in crunch situations from here on.”

This was Punjab’s third loss in a row, and they’ve lost their early momentum. They now play Mumbai Indians on May 16 and Chennai Super Kings on May 20, both being away games.

“To be honest, we haven’t been one of those champion sides in this league. We have been a side that has punched above its weight and I expected a run like this to happen to us, but not this much. Probably, I thought, we would have won a game or two more and got to 14 or 16 points, but that has not happened. We have lost three on the bounce now and hope we don’t lose the fourth.”