Match 60 of this year’s IPL edition between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Punjab Kings will be a key factor in deciding the fates of both team in their quest to qualify for the play-off season.
With every passing match, prospects for teams under the top 4 are changing rapidly and Punjab Kings will also be feeling the same heat here.
From this match onwards, both teams enter a phase of do or die as one defeat may be enough to throw them out of the tournament.
The result of this crucial match will have serious implications for the team which ends up on the losing side.
Royal Challengers Bangalore sit at the 4th spot in the table currently.
On the other hand, Punjab Kings have had 3 losses in their last 6 games.
With 5 wins so far in their 11 games, Kings are still clinging on the hope to make it to the play-offs.
For Punjab Kings, their Captain Mayank Agarwal will need to lead the charge in batting if his team has to have any chance of playing the play-offs.
The Kings middle order has has been solid so far with performances from overseas players like Liam Livingstone and Bhanuka Rajapaksa.
If Agarwal comes on later and plays some cameos at the end of innings with Dhawan and Bairstow opening the innings, Kings can post a defendable target.
Punjab’s bowling started the tournament decently but now they are 2nd most expensive bowling attack after Mumbai with a strike rate of 8.65.
How they use their key bowlers Rabada and Arshdeep will be a key factor in determining the result of this match.
RCB on the other end have buckled up nicely after some early losses.
Captain Du Plessis is in prime form and he has scored more runs against Punjab this season as compared to other teams.
The surprising replacement Rajat Patidar has been clinical so far for RCB with an impact score of 39.75 on this season.
Their bowling attack has been clinical as well led by Josh Hazlewood.
Match details
Venue: Brabourne Stadium Mumbai
Date: 13th May 2022
Time: 7:30 pm IST
Head to head past record
RCB and PBKS have played a total of 29 matches against each other. Punjab has won 16 while RCB has won 13 of those.
Probable Playing 11 – Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Faf du Plessis (capt), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood
Probable Playing 11 – Punjab Kings:
Jonny Bairstow, Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal (capt), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Rishi Dhawan, Rahul Chahar, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh, Sandeep Sharma
Star bowler of the match:
Arshdeep Singh
Star batsman of the match:
Rajat Patidar
Who will win?
The way RCB has pulled back in the tournament after some early hiccups will have given them tons of confidence and they have already bagged 14 points so far.
This game will be a testament to their temperament moving ahead in the play-offs and they will come hard against teetering Kings who look to maintain their balance and still hope to play play-offs.
Predicting a winner in a T20 game is a crooked task but the stats and reviews point towards RCB cementing their place in the top 4 with a win against Punjab this Friday.