{"id":149757,"date":"2026-04-01T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=149757"},"modified":"2026-04-01T01:01:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:31:01","slug":"cooper-connollys-debut-knock-shows-maturity-he-will-be-one-of-the-finds-of-ipl-2026-chahal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/?p=149757","title":{"rendered":"Cooper Connolly\u2019s debut knock shows maturity; he will be one of the finds of IPL 2026: Chahal"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Punjab Kings spinner Yuzvendra Chahal believes young Cooper Connolly will be one of the \u201cfinds\u201d of this season, praising the young Australian batter\u2019s maturity after he scored a match-winning fifty on his IPL debut.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old Connolly announced himself in style, smashing an unbeaten 72 to guide Punjab Kings to a nervy three-wicket win over Gujarat Titans in its IPL campaign opener here on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s only 20 something but has a hunger. The way he performed in his very first match, batting at number 3, playing a match-winning innings, shows how mature he is mentally,\u201d Chahal said at the post-match press conference.<\/p>\n

Also read | Who is Cooper Connolly? Australia\u2019s rising all-rounder lights up IPL debut<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Walking in at No. 3, Connolly held firm even as wickets fell at the other end, showing remarkable composure for a newcomer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe knows what the situation is. He knows that if I am there till the end, then I have to finish the game. And that shows maturity. That is a good sign for our team.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the way he is batting, I think he will be one of the finds of this season,\u201d Chahal said.<\/p>\n

Chahal himself played a key role with the ball, returning figures of 2\/28 in his four overs. His experience shone through as he applied pressure in the middle overs, restricting GT to 162\/6.<\/p>\n

\"Yuzvendra<\/p>\n
Yuzvendra Chahal picked up two wickets in his four overs against Gujarat Titans.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR\n <\/p>\n

\"lightbox-info\"\/<\/figcaption><\/div>\n

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Yuzvendra Chahal picked up two wickets in his four overs against Gujarat Titans.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Speaking about the bowling plans, he said:\u201dBecause the wicket was a little slow, we didn\u2019t want to give pace. We wanted to bowl as many cutters as possible. The plan was that if the batsmen hit on longer boundaries, it would be good for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite Connolly\u2019s heroics, Punjab Kings suffered a middle-order collapse, with Priyansh Arya (7), captain Shreyas Iyer (18), Nehal Wadhera (3), Shashank Singh (4) and Marcus Stoinis (0) failing to make an impact.<\/p>\n

However, Chahal played down the concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year you have one or two matches like that, and we are lucky that the first match was like that. So, it\u2019s nothing to worry about right now. The way we have been playing since last year, we will go to the ground with the same positive energy and there is a hunger, which we missed last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

PBKS, who moved to fourth spot on the point stable, will next take on Chennai Super Kings in Chennai on Friday.<\/p>\n

Published on Apr 01, 2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Punjab Kings spinner Yuzvendra Chahal believes young Cooper Connolly will be one of the \u201cfinds\u201d of this season, praising the young Australian batter\u2019s maturity after he scored a match-winning fifty on his IPL debut. The 22-year-old Connolly announced himself in style, smashing an unbeaten 72 to guide Punjab Kings to a nervy three-wicket win over…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":149758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/45_IPL_TWENTY_20_MATCH_PKBS_GT_31_03_CHANDIGARH.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgnRh4-CXr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=149757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/149758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=149757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=149757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newslink360.space\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=149757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}