IPL 2017 Match 8 : Kings XI Punjab vs Royal Challenger’s Bangalore: RCB’s Predicted XI
Apr 9, 2017 at 2:41 PM
The IPL is already producing some real nail-biters and we’re just warming up.
The first matches of both the teams were absolute thrillers with some big stars performing in absolute style!
Kings XI Punjab had a disastrous last couple of seasons of the Indian Premier League where they ended up being the bottom-placed team each time. They won just four matches in the 2016 edition. Royal Challengers Bangalore had a rough start to the season as they suffered a loss at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening match. Their bowlers leaked far too many runs in that game But in their match the other day with DD, they had shown decent game with great bowling stuff by their key players and great captaincy by Watson.
It’s not often that a team defends a relatively modest total at the ‘smallish’ Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru. But on the night, Royal Challengers Bangalore became the first team since 2015 to defend a score under 200 on the ground. RCB won the toss and elected to bat first.
Gayle, Mandeep and Shane Watson were back in the pavilion as the scorecard read 55/3 in 8.4 overs at one stage. But Kedar Jadhav (69) propelled his team with a fiery knock that looked set to push their score above 180 but a stall late on meant that they could post a meagre 157/8.
PREVIOUS ENCOUNTER:
KXIP vs RCB Head to Head Records IPL is as old as IPL. Head to head KXIP and RCB have played 18 games so far. KXIP won 10 games while RCB won 8 games. When we talk about head to head battle, KXIP has upper hand on the RCB. Winning ratio is more than 60%. Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore have never faced each other before at the Holkar Cricket Stadium.
RECENT FROM THIS SEASON:
Glenn Maxwell and David Miller lived up to their respective reputations to steer Kings XI Punjab to a comfortable six-wicket win against Rising Pune Supergiants in their Indian Premier League 2017 opener in Indore. With four sixes and two fours, Maxwell led from the front, scoring an unbeaten 44 of 20 balls and was well supported by Miller (30*). ON other hand RCB had a topsy-turvy start, suffering a loss in their season opener against the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad they finally cruised to an impressive win last night against Delhi. Missing out on star players but some great bowling and batting by Jadhav sealed the deal for them last night !
TALKING POINTS:
AB de Villiers will return and he will be in charge of the team until Virat Kohli gets back into the side. Middle-order batsman Sarfaraz Khan who had sustained a leg injury during a practice session is likely to be ruled out of the tournament. RCB’s top-order has been bolstered by the return of their key man AB de Villiers. This will take some pressure off of Chris Gayle who will now look to play more freely and one can expect a big innings from him in this match. The team will count on Tymal Mills and Yuzvendra Chahal to deliver the goods with the ball. Chahal has been impressive so far and the KXIP batsmen may not be very comfortable against .
STRENGTHS:
RCB is one of the team to be affected most by injuries is searching out for the perfect team combination; one of their strengths, as observed in the last match, was their bowling. Gayle has always been the top-rated batsman, whichever team he makes it, is considered to be the basic starlet of the game.
PREDICTED XI:
CH Gayle, Mandeep Singh, AB de Villiers, KM Jadhav (wk), SR Watson (c), Sachin Baby, STR Binny, S Aravind, TS Mills, YS Chahal, A Choudhary.
KXIP and RCB are both batting-heavy sides and so whichever team does well with the bat is more likely to emerge victorious in this match. The latter is set to benefit enormously with the return of their talisman batsman AB de Villiers while the former are still waiting for Martin Guptill to be fully fit.
Kings XI Punjab will take confidence from the fact that they have a win in their solitary match on this ground. Royal Challengers Bangalore, on the other hand, will be playing their first match here and so it may take a while for them to get used to the conditions