Bangalore aim to keep winning momentum at Mohali

Kings XI Punjab vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
Friday, April 20th 8 pm
Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali

The Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on the Kings XI Punjab side at the PCA Stadium in Mohali.

The Royal Challengers are on a high after an incredible victory with a six off the last ball by Saurabh Tiwary against the Pune Warriors. KXIP lost their last match against KKR by a huge 8 wicket margin and lost their talismanic captain Adam Gilchrist to a hamstring injury.

Gilchrist had scored a ton and added 206 runs for the second wicket with Shaun Marsh while Chris Gayle played out a maiden over before being dismissed for a duck the last time the two teams met in Dharamsala, adding to the reason why RCB will be happy to take on a side sans Gilchrist.

To add to that, Gayle found touch at a crucial time in Bangalore, slamming 5 consecutive sixes off Rahul Sharma in an over and looking good to repeat the dose. He overtook Adam Gilchrist with the highest number of sixes in all IPL editions, hitting 85 in just 32 innings compared to Gilchrist’s 84 in 65 innings.

He would like to seek out Piyush Chawla though Chawla is a far more experienced leg spinner than Sharma and could be a legitimate threat to the RCB line up along with Bhargav Bhatt.

Tillakaratne Dilshan is likely to retain his place though the team will want to reconsider the batting order from the previous game. Mayank Agarwal and Tiwary ahead of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers respectively has the responsibility spread more evenly but could lead them to losing wickets in quick succession at crucial points.

The bowlers did a good job pulling back the Warriors batsmen in the second half but will want to keep a tight check on the runs they give away in the beginning, considering Paul Valthaty and Marsh could easily go on a rampage.

Vinay got wickets but was expensive; Zaheer Khan, Harshal and Vettori kept the runs down but hardly have wickets to show for them. The fifth bowler problem continues, KP Appanna had Uthappa caught behind in his very first over but conceded 23 in his two overs after that appeal was put down while Dilshan gave away 24 in his two.

Kings XI are likely to debut the very useful Azhar Mahmood, he can be economical as well as a strike bowlers, with Dimitri Mascarenhas, Praveen Kumar and Harmeet Singh Bansal, KXIP can easily choke the runs while the spinners Bhargav Bhatt and Chawla run rings around the batsmen.

David Hussey is another threat in the middle order and most likely to lead KXIP in the game. How he makes use of his resources in his one game at the helm remains to be seen. How Daniel Vettori uses these various advantages to keep RCB’s winning momentum going will be bigger point of interest here.