IPL 2022: Punjab pushing for a win with playoff spot in mind

IPL 2022: Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore faceoff against each other in the 60th match of the TATA IPL 2022, on Friday

Punjab Kings are having a mixed season with 5 wins out of 11 matches in IPL 2022. Their openers Jonny Bairstow and Shikhar Dhawan has been inconsistent. Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Liam Livingstone are the in-form power hitters in the middle overs. Kagiso Rabada has been very impressive with the ball too. They currently sit at 8th position, with still a chance of qualifying for the playoffs.

Royal Challengers Bangalore are having a good season till now, sitting at 4th position with 7 wins and 5 losses. The only issue that Bangalore is facing is that Virat Kohli is having a season to forget. He is out-of-form and inconsistent too. But a player of his caliber knows the right moment to bounce back. Opener Faf du Plessis, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, and Dinesh Karthik have been excellent with the bat. Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood, and Harshal Patel consistently delivered good performances with the ball.

Match Details:

Punjab Kings vs Royal Challengers Bangalore

Venue: Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai

Date & Time: Friday, 13th May 2022 at 7:30 PM IST and Local Time

Live Streaming: Star Sports Network and Disney+Hotstar

Pitch Report:

The pitch in Brabourne Stadium is spin-friendly, but at the initial stages, pacers will get some help too. The surface will get better as the game progresses. The dew factor will push both the captain to win the toss and field first.

IPL Head-to-Head:

Total matches played: 29

Punjab Kings won: 16

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 13

Probable Line-ups:

Punjab Kings: Jonny Bairstow, Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal (c), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Rishi Dhawan, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Sandeep Sharma

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood

Also read: Virat Kohli speaks about his lack of runs in Tata IPL 2022

IPL Match Prediction:

Royal Challengers Bangalore is coming to this match after winning two back-to-back matches and will be high on confidence. On the other hand, Punjab is having a mixed performance this season and has lost their last match. Though Punjab Kings chased down an astonishing target of 206, last time when both these sides met in April. The match is going to be a very close one and Royal Challengers Bangalore will go with a win.