After a brilliant start to the season, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were brought crashing down to the earth with back to back defeats and now they face the difficult task of beating the in-form table-toppers Kings XI Punjab.
After a brilliant start to the season, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were brought crashing down to the earth with back to back defeats and now they face the difficult task of beating the in-form table-toppers Kings XI Punjab when the two sides clash in an IPL match.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore go into this tie with two defeats which is in stark contrast to the Kings XI Punjab who are yet to taste a defeat in this season of IPL.
RCB are without their powerhouse performer, Chris Gayle who is nursing a sore back. In the last game against the Rajasthan Royals, their star-studded batting line-up collapsed to the third lowest IPL total (70). Except for skipper Virat Kohli, none of the RCB batsmen could make any contributions with the bat. High profile signing, Yuvraj Singh has been getting decent knocks but the pace of his innings is still a worry. With Punjab next on the list, Kohli must gear up his troops and start afresh if they are to win something against the high flying Punjab.
Punjab`s batsmen, especially Glenn Maxwell and David Miller have been in murderous form. Aussie Glenn Maxwell has been in tremendous form throughout the IPL 7 season and is the leading run-scorer (294). A big positive for KXIP this time around is the arrival of Virender Sehwag to some form. The veteran, who has fallen out of national side, is slowly getting back into the groove with some decent contributions in the past couple of games.
The Kings XI Punjab have the likes of L Balaji and Mitchell Johnson in their bowling unit and will need to be at their superior best to stop the likes of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli.
Teams (from):
Kings XI Punjab: George Bailey (c), David Miller, Manan Vohra, Virender Sehwag, Mitchell Johnson, Cheteshwar Pujara, Shaun Marsh, Wriddhaman Saha, Thisara Perera, Glenn Maxwell, Rishi Dhawan, Anureet Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Akshar Patel, Beuran Hendricks, Karanveer Singh, Murali Kartik, Shivam Sharma, Shardul Thakur, L Balaji, Parvinder Awana, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Mandeep Singh.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (c), Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Yuvraj Singh, Parthiv Patel, Albie Morkel, Mitchell Starc, Ashok Dinda, Ravi Rampaul, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nic Maddinson, Varun Aaron, Vijay, Sachin Rana, Yogesh Takawale, Abu Nechim Ahmed, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shadab Jakati, Sandeep Warrier, Harshal Patel, Tanmay Mishra.
