Bangalore: Belatedly getting into the groove with back-to-back victories, Royal Challengers Bangalore would look to continue the momentum when they take on Kings XI Punjab in an IPL match on Wednesday.
RCB must be all fired up after posting a one-run win over a formidable Chennai Super Kings and would be desperate to keep the juggernaut rolling.
Having survived a brutal assault at the hands of Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the last game, they should have gained some confidence and would not like to look back.
Although AB de Villiers and Kohli did not click with the bat, the failures would prompt them to score runs and put up a big total for the Royal Challengers.
RCB might draw some inspiration from their match-winning knocks of an unbeaten 59 by de Villiers and 67 by Kohli, against Punjab when they met in the first leg.
However, their bowling remains a worry despite the arrival of Dale Steyn. RCB’s bowling was exposed once again in the last match when Dhoni almost pulled off the impossible chasing 162, needing 26 runs off the last over bowled by Umesh Yadav.
The visitors ultimately fell short by just one run with wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel saving the day for RCB by running out Shardul Thakur when CSK needed two of the last ball. It was RCB’s only third win in 10 games in the season so far.
Kohli and Co. will hope to post another win this season against KXIP, who are placed fifth in the points table with 10 points.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s outfit will be coming out all guns blazing, especially after losing their last match against Delhi Capitals by five wickets at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
Punjab would want to consolidate their position in the points table with the help of hard-hitting West Indian Chris Gayle, KL Rahul and David Miller — all of whom would be looking to capitalise on RCB’s weak bowling.
The pace-spin duo of Mohammed Shami and Ashwin have been KXIP’s best bowlers and the team would expect them to come up with another good show.
Among others, Ankit Rajpoot, Sam Curran, Hardus Viljoen and Andrew Tye will also be looking to provide depth to the Kings XI bowling.
Teams (from):
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (C), Parthiv Patel, AB de Villiers, Colin de Grandhomme, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Moeen Ali, Shimron Hetmyer, Dale Steyn, Shivam Dube, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Devdutt Padikkal, Himmat Singh, Milind Kumar, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Heinrich Klaasen, Pawan Negi, Washington Sundar, Akshdeep Nath, Prayas Ray Barman, Kulwant Khejroliya, Tim Southee.
Kings XI Punjab: Lokesh Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Sam Curran, Ravichandran Ashwin (C), Andrew Tye, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Karun Nair, Moises Henriques, Varun Chakravarthi, Harpreet Brar, Simran Singh, Nicholas Pooran (WK), Hardus Viljoen, Ankit Rajpoot, Arshdeep Singh, Darshan Nalkande, Agnivesh Ayachi.
Bureau Report
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