Punjab hands Bengaluru another home defeat in Indian Premier League

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Punjab Kings kept Royal Challengers Bengaluru winless at home in a rain-shortened Indian Premier League game on Friday.

Light drizzle reduced the Twenty20 game to 14 overs a side and Bengaluru was in danger of being bowled out for its lowest IPL total of 49 before Tim David's 26-ball unbeaten 50 lifted the home team to 95-9.

Punjab stuttered briefly until Nehal Wadhera smacked three sixes and three boundaries and carried Punjab to 98-5 in 12.1 overs for a five-wicket win.

With a fifth win in seven games, Punjab was second in the table on run rate.

Bengaluru was fourth thanks to four away wins. But it has still to win at home.

Punjab fast bowlers Arshdeep Singh, Marco Jansen and Xavier Bartlett shared five wickets between them. Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal bagged 2-11 following 4-28 against Kolkata Knight Riders.

Arshdeep made the first inroads with his short balls when Phil Salt (4) and Virat Kohli (1) fell to pulls.

Wicketkeeper Josh Inglis sprinted to square leg and made a scintillating diving catch to get Salt, and Jansen grabbed a sharp catch of Kohli at mid-on.

Captain Rajat Patidar, one of the only two Bengaluru batters to reach double figures, passed 1,000 runs in the IPL but holed out to long-on as he tried to loft Chahal.

South African left-armer Jansen sliced through the middle order with 2-10 as Bengaluru slipped to 42-7 in the eighth over.

David smashed spinner Harpreet Brar (2-25) for three successive sixes in the last over and completed his half-century with two runs off the final ball after the leg-spinner overstepped and conceded a no-ball.

Brar was on a hat trick when he dismissed Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal but Hazlewood prevented the hat trick and David counterattaked in the final over.

Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar removed the Punjab openers inside the four-over powerplay as the fast bowlers prospered in damp conditions.

Captain Shreyas Iyer and Inglis added a quiet 20 runs before Hazlewood returned and gave Bengaluru a glimmer of hope with two brilliant short balls.

Hazlewood got the thick outside edge of Iyer’s drive, and two balls later Inglis sliced a catch to third man as Punjab slipped to 53-4 in eight overs.

But Wadhera successfully took on leg-spinner Suyash Sharma to lead the charge, and Marcus Stoinis finished off the game with a six off Dayal.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Virat Kohli walks off the field after losing his wicket during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Punjab Kings' Marco Jansen bowls a delivery during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Punjab Kings' Yuzvendra Chahal, center, celebrates the dismissal of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Jitesh Sharma, foreground, during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Punjab Kings' Marco Jansen, left, celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Krunal Pandya during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Punjab Kings' Marco Jansen takes the catch of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Virat Kohli during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Punjab Kings' Harpreet Brar, center, celebrates with teammates the dismissal of Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Yash Dayal during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Tim David during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Punjab Kings' Nehal Wadhera celebrates with batting partner Marcus Stoinis after their win against Royal Challengers Bengaluru during the Indian Premier League cricket match at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Punjab Kings' Nehal Wadhera plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Punjab Kings' Nehal Wadhera hits a six during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, India, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

SAN FRANCISCO & JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 12, 2026--

Abridge, the leading enterprise-grade AI for clinical conversations, is collaborating with Availity, the nation’s largest real-time health information network, to launch a first-of-its kind prior authorization experience. The engagement uses cutting-edge technology grounded in the clinician-patient conversation to facilitate a more efficient process between clinicians and health plans in medical necessity review.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260112960386/en/

Rather than creating parallel AI systems across healthcare stakeholders, Abridge and Availity are working together to ensure shared clinical context at the point of conversation powers administrative processes, such as prior authorization review and submission, improving outcomes for patients and the teams delivering care.

This collaboration unites two trusted and scaled organizations: combining Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform, serving over 200 health systems and projected to support over 80 million patient-clinician conversations in 2026, with Availity’s next-generation, FHIR-native Intelligent Utilization Management solution, which helps payers and providers digitize and operationalize coverage requirements within administrative workflows.

Availity’s FHIR-native APIs enable fast, scalable, and secure connectivity of payer information across the entire healthcare ecosystem. With Abridge’s Contextual Reasoning Engine technology, clinicians can gain visibility into relevant clinical information during the conversation to support documentation aligned with prior authorization requirements.

“At Availity, we’ve invested in building AI-powered, FHIR-native APIs designed to bring clinical policy logic directly into provider workflows,” said Russ Thomas, CEO of Availity. “By embedding our technology at the point of conversation, we’re enabling faster, more transparent utilization management decisions rooted in clinical context. We’re excited to collaborate with Abridge and to demonstrate what’s possible when payer intelligence meets real-time provider workflows.”

The development of real-time prior authorization is just a component of a broader revenue cycle collaboration that is focused on applying real-time conversational intelligence across the patient, provider, and payer experiences. The companies intend to support integration by collaborating on workflow alignment between their respective platforms in the following areas:

“Abridge and Availity are each bringing national scale, deep trust, and a track record of solving important challenges across the care and claims experience to this partnership,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Abridge. “We’re building real-time bridges between patients, providers, and payers, unlocking shared understanding, focused at the point of conversation.”

About Availity

Availity empowers payers and providers to deliver transformative patient experiences by enabling the seamless exchange of clinical, administrative, and financial information. As the nation's largest real-time health information network, Availity develops intelligent, automated, and interoperable solutions that foster collaboration and shared value across the healthcare ecosystem. With connections to over 95% of payers, more than 3 million providers, and over 2,000 trading partners, Availity provides mission-critical connectivity to drive the future of healthcare innovation. For more information, including an online demonstration, please visit www.availity.com or call 1.800.AVAILITY (282.4548). Follow us on LinkedIn.

About Abridge

Abridge was founded in 2018 to power deeper understanding in healthcare. Abridge is now trusted by more than 200 of the largest and most complex health systems in the U.S. The enterprise-grade AI platform transforms medical conversations into clinically useful and billable documentation at the point of care, reducing administrative burden and clinician burnout while improving patient experience. With deep EHR integration, support for 28+ languages, and 50+ specialties, Abridge is used across a wide range of care settings, including outpatient, emergency department, and inpatient.

Abridge’s enterprise-grade AI platform is purpose-built for healthcare. Supported by Linked Evidence, Abridge is the only solution that maps AI-generated summaries to source data, helping clinicians quickly trust and verify the output. As a pioneer in generative AI for healthcare, Abridge is setting the industry standard for the responsible deployment of AI across health systems.

Abridge was awarded Best in KLAS 2025 for Ambient AI in addition to other accolades, including Forbes 2025 AI 50 List, TIME Best Inventions of 2024, and Fortune’s 2024 AI 50 Innovators.

Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation

Abridge and Availity Collaborate to Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy at the Point of Conversation