IPL 2017, RCB Vs KXIP, Match 8 Preview: Punjab and Bengaluru eye second win
Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab will lock horns today in the 8th match of IPL 10 at the Holkar Cricket Stadium on Monday and both teams will keenly look forward to putting more points to their tally.
Both the teams are pumped up after registering one-one victory each in the tournament so far.
Bangalore lost the opener match to the defending champion Sunrisers Hyderabad and made a commendable comeback in the second match against Delhi daredevils.
Punjab, on the other hand, seemed to be in magnificent form as it clinched the opening match against Rising Pune Supergiant.
RCB began their campaign without skipper and star batsman Virat Kohli as well as another key player AB de Villiers due to injuries and managed to win one out of two games played so far.
RCB have also lost India batsman Lokesh Rahul for the entire tournament owing to an injury and the talented Sarfaraz Khan will most likely be unavailable for the season after hurting himself on the field during a practice match.
Kohli is almost certain to miss today's match as there has not been any word on his status since the BCCI's advisory on April 2 which said that his fitness will be assessed in the second week of this month.
Explosive South African batsman de Villiers is once again a doubtful starter for and in his absence Shane Watson would continue to lead the side as an interim captain.
Watson had marshalled his bowling resources well in RCB's 15-run win over Delhi at home, himself taking one wicket and bowling economically by conceding just 21 runs from his quota of four overs.
On the batting front, RCB surely missed Kohli and de Villiers though Kedar Jadhav once again showed his utility by smashing a 37-ball 69 to single-handedly take his side to 157 for 8. 'Universe Boss' Chris Gayle failed to get going as he scored just 6 yesterday after his 32 in RCB's first match.
Kings XI Punjab will come into tomorrow's match with a lot of confidence after a comfortable victory over Rising Pune Supergiant. Australian Glenn Maxwell led from the front with a quickfire 44 off just 20 balls to chase down the target with six balls to spare.
Maxwell was making his captaincy debut in the match against RPS and he would look to continue against RCB tomorrow also at the Holkar Stadium which is KXIP's second home venue along with Mohali.
All eyes will remain on Chris Gayle from RCB's side as he is yet to live up to his reputation of being a hard-hitter while Punjab's Maxwell will once again be expected to play a captain's knock.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Shane Watson (capt), Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jadhav (wk), Travis Head, Sachin Baby, Stuart Binny, Tymal Mills, Sreenath Aravind, Aniket Choudhary, Yuzvendra Chahal, Pawan Negi, Harshal Patel, Adam Milne, Iqbal Abdulla, Samuel Badree, Avesh Khan, Tabraiz Shamsi, Praveen Dubey, Billy Stanlake.
Kings XI Punjab: Glenn Maxwell (capt), David Miller, Manan Vohra, Hashim Amla, Shaun Marsh, Armaan Jaffer, Martin Guptill, Eoin Morgan, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Arman Jaffer, Anureet Singh, Mohit Sharma, KC Cariappa, Pradeep Sahu, Swapnil Singh, T Natrajan, Matt Henry, Varun Aaron, Axar Patel, Marcus Stoinis, Gurkeerat Mann, Rahul Tewatia, Darren Sammy, Wriddhiman Saha, Nikhil Naik, Ishant Sharma.
--With PTI inputs
