Published: May 06, 2017, 12:30 PM (IST)
Edited: May 06, 2017, 12:06 AM (IST)
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will square off with Kings XI Punjab in match 43 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017, at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. This is Vishal Mehra, and I will bring all the live cricket updates, trending posts from the social media universe, and intriguing numbers with the help of our statistician Abhishek Kumar who tells me that the Royal Challengers have won 11 of 19 games against the Kings. However, the Royal Challengers Bangalore are already out of contentions to book a berth in the IPL 10 playoffs. On the other hand, the Kings XI need 4 wins from remaining 5 contests to enter the penultimate stage. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD, Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kings XI Punjab – Match 43
Travis Head has been out of sorts for the past few games. In this edition, he has scores of 30, 30*, 2, 12. As a result, the Royal Challengers Bangalore are likely to drop him at the expense of Chris Gayle. This move has more to do with Gayle’s performance against the Kings XI. He has blasted 797 runs at 56.92, with a strike rate of 175.55 against them. With only 3 matches remaining, the Royal Challengers Bangalore may as well give him the license to go bonkers. In addition, Gayle’s scores at M Chinnaswamy Stadium read 107, 71, 77, 4, 117, and 73. Do you, by any chance, see a reason to bench Gayle in tonight’s contest?
AB de Villiers had dominated in the previous contest between these two. His 46-ball 89 took the Royal Challengers Bangalore to a challenging total. However, that did not stop the Kings thrash them at Indore.
With Martin Guptill opening with Hashim Amla, Manan Vohra has to bat at No. 4. Of course, he cannot replace Shaun Marsh, the Kings XI’s most capped player, at No. 3. Glenn Maxwell and Wriddhiman Saha will follow them to either resurrect the fallen innings or carry the laid foundation. All in all, they have a staggering batting line-up. Amongst bowlers, Akshar Patel is likely to the only spinner. Sandeep Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Varun Aaron, and T Natarajan will take care of pace-bowling.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore will have to make a choice between Samuel Badree and Adam Milne, given Gayle, de Villiers, and Shane Watson will be the remaining three foreign players.
Squads:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (c), Kedar Jadhav (wk), AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Sreenath Aravind, Shane Watson, Stuart Binny, Samuel Badree, Iqbal Abdulla, Travis Head, Sachin Baby, Avesh Khan, Tabraiz Shamsi, Pawan Negi, Tymal Mills, Aniket Choudhary, Praveen Dubey, Billy Stanlake.
Kings XI Punjab: Glenn Maxwell (c), Hashim Amla, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), David Miller, Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, Manan Vohra, Akshar Patel, Marcus Stoinis, T Natarajan, Swapnil Singh, Darren Sammy, Shaun Marsh, Eoin Morgan, Ishant Sharma, Martin Guptill, Anureet Singh, Varun Aaron, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Matt Henry, Nikhil Naik, Rahul Tewatia, KC Cariappa, Pardeep Sahu, Rinku Singh, Armaan Jaffer.
