Sharjah: Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on the Kings XI Punjab in a cracking contest in the Indian Premier League on Thursday (October 15) at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Both these sides have had strongly contrasting campaigns so far. RCB have done exceptionally good and scalped five wins from seven games.
RCB come into this match at the back of an excellent win over KKR. Punjab, meanwhile, have managed to bag just one win (against RCB) from seven games and lost their previous game to KKR from a winning position.
RCB seem to have figured out the right and well-balanced combination in this campaign. Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal have been brilliant in bowling, as the spin duo has demolished oppositions and made them do a lot of wrong moves.Chris Morris has hit the ground running as well. Despite missing five games through injury, Morris has already made a huge impact by picking up five wickets in two games.
Devdutt Padikkal’s consistent showings have decreased the pressure on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, who are playing with more freedom. De Villiers was the match-winner for RCB against KKR and played an outstanding knock of 73* off just 33 balls on a very logy Sharjah wicket.
Kings XI Punjab would certainly consider themselves unlucky after their loss to KKR. They bowled pretty well, and for once, seemed to have gotten their team combination right. They also paced their chase well but lost the match from a position where they needed just 29 runs in four overs with nine wickets in hand.
Their chances of making it to the playoffs are very slim, but they will certainly look to make a comeback in this game. KL Rahul should take confidence from the fact that his team dominated most of the game against KKR. They will, however, need to be at their best if they want to stand any chance of beating RCB.
Squads:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers(w), Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Isuru Udana, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Dale Steyn, Umesh Yadav, Moeen Ali, Pawan Negi, Josh Philippe, Parthiv Patel, Adam Zampa, Pavan Deshpande, Shahbaz Ahmed
Kings XI Punjab: Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul(c), Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Simran Singh(w), Mandeep Singh, Chris Jordan, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Arshdeep Singh, Chris Gayle, Karun Nair, Murugan Ashwin, Krishnappa Gowtham, James Neesham, Sheldon Cottrell, Deepak Hooda, Sarfaraz Khan, Hardus Viljoen, Jagadeesha Suchith, Ishan Porel, Tajinder Singh, Darshan Nalkande, Harpreet Brar.
