Royal to challenge jittery Kings in must-win game
Having found some light at the end of the tunnel, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will be keen to expose the chinks in Kings XI Punjab’s (KXIP) armoury during their must-win Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter here on Monday.
RCB got some breathing space after their five-wicket victory against Delhi Daredevils while Kings XI Punjab, after a brilliant run at the initial stages, are currently struggling with back to back defeats.
Despite losses to Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders, KXIP are in the top half of the league with 12 points while RCB are still languishing at the second last place in the table.
However in IPL, strange things have happened at the business end of the tournament and RCB, under Virat Kohli, are likely to put a lot of pressure on the slipping KXIP.
While Kohli and AB de Villiers anchored an easy chase against Daredevils with stylish half-centuries, KXIP bowlers were under the pump, being taken to cleaners by Sunil Narine and Dinesh Karthik as KKR scored a mammoth 245 in the last game.
Both the teams are overtly dependant on their batting with Kohli and De Villiers holding forte for the RCB while Preity Zinta co-owned outfit looks up to KL Rahul (537 runs) and Chris Gayle (332 runs) for inspirational performances.
Such has been the gulf in performance between skipper Kohli and other batsmen in the team, despite blowing ‘hot and cold’ throughout the season, he is team’s top scorer by a distance with 466 runs from 11 games. De Villiers (358 runs) is 108 runs behind his skipper, although he has played two games less. Mandeep Singh (245 from 11 games) is third in the list and is another 200 runs (221 runs) behind Kohli.
For KXIP, Rahul has been in a different league with five half-centuries and a strikerate of 162 plus and an average of nearly 60. Rahul will be desperate to get some support from Gayle, who has gone quiet after initial carnage. A quickfire 50 from Gayle can change the complexion of the game.
However, it is the bowling which has let both RCB and KXIP down on many occasions. The standout bowler for KXIP has been Andrew Tye with 20 wickets at an economy rate of eight per over while teenage mystery spinner Mujeeb ur Rahman has been exceptional with 14 wickets at a miserly rate of 6.99 per over.
In case of RCB, Kohli’s propensity to tinker with bowling combinations after almost every game has had an impact on the performance. Only India internationals Yuzvendra Chahal (10 wickets from 11 games at an economy rate of 7.57) and Umesh Yadav (14 wickets from 11 games at an economy rate of 8.23) have played all the games.