Punjab loses again as Bengaluru advances in IPL with 23-run victory. Delhi vs. Rajasthan

DHARAMSALA, India (AP) — Venkatesh Iyer was 73 not out off 40 balls and Virat Kohli hit a 37-ball 58 as defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Punjab Kings by 23 runs to advance to the knockout stage of the Indian Premier League on Sunday.

Put into bat, Bengaluru scored an impressive 222-4. In reply, Punjab reached 199-8 in 20 overs with Bhuvneshwar Kumar picking up 2-38 in four overs.

Bengaluru confirmed its spot in the top four with a game to spare – it has 18 points from nine wins in 13 games.

For Punjab, it was a sixth straight loss. It is fourth with 13 points from 13 games. The Kings must now win their final game against already eliminated Lucknow Super Giants but will still depend on other results going their way.

In Sunday’s late game, Delhi Capitals takes on Rajasthan Royals.

Left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar bowled opener Jacob Bethell for 11 but Bengaluru went on to score 61-1 in the powerplay.

Kohli hit his fourth half-century of the season off 31 balls. Kohli struck three sixes and four fours overall, putting on 76 runs for the second wicket off 41 balls with Devdutt Padikkal (45), who hit three sixes off 25 balls before he was caught off Brar.

Iyer and Kohli then came together to add 60 off 35, before Kohli was caught off Yuzvendra Chahal in the 15th over.

Bengaluru accelerated despite that loss as Iyer smashed his first 50 of the season, coming off 29 balls. Overall, he hit four sixes and eight fours.

Tim David’s 12-ball 28 included two sixes as Bengaluru eased past 200 with 65 runs off the last five overs.

It was the 53rd 200-plus score in this edition of the IPL, and the most for any season. The previous record was in 2025 with 52 200-plus totals in 74 matches.

In reply, Punjab quickly slipped to 19-3 in 3.2 overs. Kumar struck twice in 11 balls, removing attacking openers Priyansh Arya (0) and Prabhsimran Singh (2).

Rasikh Salam (3-36 in four overs) had skipper Shreyas Iyer caught behind for 1. Punjab only managed 49-3 in the powerplay.

Cooper Connolly (37) and Suryansh Shedge (35) stabilized the innings, and Marcus Stoinis (37) and Shashank Singh put on 67 off 32 deliveries for the sixth wicket.

Josh Hazlewood broke that partnership, trapping Stoinis lbw, after Punjab fought back from 93-5 to 160-6 in 16.1 overs.

Singh (56 off 27) overcame his poor run to score 50 off 22 balls, and Azmatullah Omarzai contributed 14. Both fell in the final over.

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

Punjab Kings' Shashank Singh, left, and Azmatullah Omarzai during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Dharamshala, India, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Venkatesh Iyer plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Dharamshala, India, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Virat Kohli reacts after miss field during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Dharamshala, India, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Virat Kohli bats during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in Dharamshala, India, Sunday, May 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — One of Ukraine's largest drone strikes on Russia killed at least four people, including three near Moscow, and wounded a dozen others, local authorities said Sunday. Debris fell on Russia's largest airport without causing damage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the drone strikes, saying that they were “entirely justified.” Russia has repeatedly launched similar attacks on Ukraine's capital and other cities during the war, and an expert said that the strikes appeared to be retaliation for recent Russian attacks on Kyiv.

Russian drone strikes on Ukraine overnight wounded eight people, Ukrainian authorities said.

In Ukraine's strikes on Russia, a woman was killed after a drone hit her home in Khimki, a Russian city just northwest of Moscow, and two men died in the village of Pogorelki, which is 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the capital, according to local Gov. Andrei Vorobyev.

Ukrainian drones had also damaged unspecified “infrastructure” and several high-rise buildings, Vorobyev said on social media.

One man was also killed after a drone struck a truck in the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, according to local authorities.

In Moscow itself, at least 12 people were wounded in the nighttime strike, mostly near the entrance to the city’s oil refinery, mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported. Sobyanin reported that the “technology” of the refinery hadn't been damaged.

Hours later, the Indian Embassy in Moscow reported that an Indian worker died in a drone strike “in (the) Moscow region,” while three other Indian nationals were hospitalized with injuries. It wasn't immediately clear whether the worker was one of the three people reported dead by Moscow region officials, or a further fatality.

Russia’s largest airport — Moscow’s Sheremetyevo — said that drone debris had fallen on its grounds without causing damage or affecting flights.

Russian defenses shot down 81 drones headed for Moscow overnight, state agency Tass reported, citing Sobyanin, marking one of the largest attacks on the city since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Russian air defenses overnight destroyed 556 drones over Russia, the occupied Crimean Peninsula and the Azov and Black Seas, the Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday morning. Shortly after midday local time, it reported that more than 1,000 drones had been shot down or jammed in the previous 24 hours.

Zelenskyy said that the drones had flown more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Ukrainian territory, and that Ukraine was “overcoming” Russian air defense systems concentrated in and around the capital.

“Our responses to Russia’s prolongation of the war and attacks on our cities and communities are entirely justified. This time, Ukrainian long-distance sanctions have reached the Moscow region, and we are clearly telling the Russians: their state must end its war,” Zelenskyy said.

Nigel Gould Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, said that Ukraine's large-scale attack appeared to be “the retaliation or revenge that President Zelenskyy promised after the fierce attacks that Russia carried out on Kyiv.”

Those strikes came immediately after the end of a brief ceasefire that allowed Russia to hold its annual Victory Day parade on May 9 commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany during World War II.

Russia and Ukraine accused each other of repeatedly violating the pause in hostilities.

“It brings home the fact Ukraine has the capacity to strike at very significant scale at or around the Russian capital,” taking the war home to Russians in a way that would be “most unwelcome” to the Kremlin, Gould Davies told The Associated Press.

“There is no ongoing peace process to disrupt. What (the attack) is more likely to do is add to the darkening cloud of anxiety over Russia which has developed palpably over the last three or four months,” he said.

He cited a combination of factors, including Russia's recent battlefield setbacks, a deteriorating economic situation at home, and the Kremlin's intensifying crackdown on the internet, including in Moscow and Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg.

“The fact that Ukraine is reminding the Moscow population that it is vulnerable to these attacks is likely to intensify the mix of concerns now,” Gould Davies said. “I see no prospect though, in the shorter term, that even these factors together will induce Russia to consider the compromises that will be necessary for peace negotiations.”

Ukrainian drones are also flying deep into Russia to strike oil facilities, sending up plumes of smoke that can be seen from space and bringing toxic rain to tourist destinations on the Black Sea. The attacks are aimed at slashing Moscow’s oil exports, a key source of funding for Russia's grinding invasion of Ukraine.

While their the economic impact is so far unclear — as the rise in oil prices from the Iran war, and a related easing of U.S. sanctions, have helped replenish the Kremlin’s coffers — the range of the strikes and their environmental impact is bringing the war home to ordinary Russians far from the front lines.

Russia attacked Ukraine with 287 drones overnight into Sunday, 279 of which were shot down or jammed, the Ukrainian air force reported.

The strikes wounded 8 people in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region: three in the regional capital of Dnipro, four in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih, and one in the district of Synelkove, Ukraine’s state emergency service said.

Residential buildings were damaged in all three locations, the service said.

Emma Burrows contributed to this report from Tallinn, Estonia.

FILE - Aeroflot's passengers planes are parked at Sheremetyevo airport, outside Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. (AP Photo, File)

This photo released by Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev's official telegram channel shows the damage after a Ukrainian drone attack, just outside Moscow, Russia, on Sunday, May 17, 2026. (Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev's official telegram channel via AP)

This photo released by Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev's official telegram channel shows a house on fire after a Ukrainian attack in Khimki, just outside Moscow, Russia, on Sunday, May 17, 2026. (Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyev's official telegram channel via AP)