After falling prey to the rain Gods fury twice, the struggling Kings XI Punjab will hope for better luck this time while Royal Challengers Bangalore will strive to get into the groove when the two teams cross swords here on Friday.
Things are not really falling in place for the Punjab team, who are languishing at the bottom of the table after losing first two encounters after the heavens opened up at crucial junctures on both occasions, forcing the umpires to apply the Duckworth-Lewis method.
The Yuvraj Singh-led side lost their campaign-opener against the Delhi Daredevils by ten wickets before going down to the Shah Rukh Khan-owned Kolkata Knight Riders in another rain-truncated encounter.
Although they are yet to open their account a week into the IPL’s second edition, the Punjab team undoubtedly possesses a mighty batting order, led by stylish left-hander Yuvraj himself, and is poised to take on Bangalore’s bowling line-up consisting erratic paceman Dale Steyn, Praveen Kumar and Kiwi all-rounder Jesse Ryder, apart from Jacques Kallis and Anil Kumble.
Yuvraj, who scored a brisk 28-ball 38 in the match against the Kolkata side, will also count on Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara and his country-mate Mahela Jayawardene for timely contributions.
On the other hand, Royal Challengers started their journey in style by comprehensively beating defending champions Rajasthan Royals by 75 runs, but since then, they are suffering from lack of consistency. Skipper Kevin Pietersen will surely draw from his experience to recapture the form they showed in the first match.
Besides Pietersen, the onus of building the innings will also be on star all-rounder Kallis and Rahul Dravid, whose 48-ball 66 was the cornerstone of Bangalore’s win against the Royals.
With the team management adamant on continuing with Robin Uthappa behind the sticks instead of South African Mark Boucher, the Karnataka cricketer also has to play his part as an opening batsman to lay the foundation for a fighting total or to chase a stiff target.
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