His efforts, along with captain Suresh Raina's unbeaten 56 off 50 balls went in vain as UP lost to Punjab by 11 runs in their first match of the tournament.

 

Bhuvneshwar's injury had ruled him out of the rest of the IPL and India's ongoing tour of Australia. With figures of 3/22, he was the highest wicket taker for UP in their Group A match against Punjab. His efforts helped UP restrict Punjab to 134/7 in 20 overs but they were unable to chase down the low target despite captain Suresh Raina scoring an unbeaten 56 off 50 balls. Their innings ended on 123/5 in 20 overs.

 

Meanwhile, a half century from Vivek Singh ensured Bengal register a facile nine wicket victory over Odisha in their first Group B tie. Chasing 114 to win after Odisha was bowled out for 113 in their 20 overs, Bengal reached the target in 12.2 overs losing one wicket, with Vivek Singh and debutant Suvankar Bal remaining unbeaten on 54 and 34 respectively.

 

Brief scores:

 

Group A:

 

Karnataka 150/5 in 20 overs (Krishnan Shrijith 48, Aniruddha Joshi 29; Parvez Rasool 2/18) vs Jammu and Kashmir 107 in 18.4 overs (Abdul Samad 30, Shubham Pundir 20; Prasidh Krishna 3/34) Karnataka beat Jammu and Kashmir by 43 runs

 

Punjab 134/7 in 20 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 43, Anmolpreet Singh 35; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/22) vs Uttar Pradesh 123/5 in 20 overs (Suresh Raina 56 not out, Dhruv Jurel 23; Siddhart Kaul 2/28) Punjab beat Uttar Pradesh by 11 runs

 

Tripura 170/3 in 20 overs (Milind Kumar 61 not out, Bishal Ghosh 36; Karn Sharma 1/23) vs Railways 173/4 in 19.3 overs (Mrunal Devdhar 61 not out, Karn Sharma 45; Sankar Paul 3/17) Railways win by six wickets

 

Group B:

 

Odisha 113 all out in 20 overs (Rajesh Dhuper 37, Ankit Yadav 32; Ishan Porel 4/26) vs Bengal 114/1 in 12.3 overs (Vivek Singh 54 not out, Suvankar Bal 34 not out; Govinda Poddar 1/10) Bengal win by nine wickets

 

Tamil Nadu 189/5 in 20 overs (C Hari Nishanth 92 not out, Dinesh Karthik 46; Rahul Shukla 2/27) vs Jharkhand 123/7 in 20 overs (Anand Singh 28 not out, Virat Singh 23; Sonu Yadav 3/31) Tamil Nadu win by 66 runs

 

Assam 159/5 in 20 overs (Riyan Parag 51 not out, Denish Das 14; Kartikeya Kak 3/42) vs Hyderabad 157/8 in 20 overs (Himalay Agarwal 29, Ravi Teja 24; Pritam Das 3/30)

 

Group C:

 

Gujarat 157/8 in 20 overs (Axar Patel 30, Rijpal Patel 29; Mukesh Choudhary 3/33) vs Maharashtra 128 all out in 19.3 overs (Naushad Sheikh 31, Ruturaj Gaikwad 26; Hardik Patel 2/19) Gujarat win by 29 runs

 

Himachal Pradesh 173/5 in 20 overs (Ravi Thakur 53, Ekant Sen 38 not out; Vishal Kushwah 3/18) vs Chattisgarh 141/8 in 20 overs (Amandeep Khare 87 not out, Vishal Kushwah 11; Rishi Dhawan 3/29) Himachal Pradesh win by 32 runs

 

Baroda 168/7 in 20 overs (Krunal Pandya 76, Smit Patel 41; Akash Madhwal 3/16) vs Uttarakhand 163/6 in 20 overs (Dikshanshu Negi 77 not out, Kunal Chandela 48; Krunal Pandya 2/33) Baroda win by five runs