High on confidence after their successive victories, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will aim to keep the winning run intact as they take on Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League on Friday.
With nine points from eight games, Bangalore are placed fifth in the IPL table and two full points against Punjab will push them to the fourth spot. But to book a berth in the play-offs, Bangalore still need to win at least four of the remaining six matches.
Hence, Bangalore will need to be at their best in the remaining matches and losing Friday's match will only make things difficult for them.
The inclusion of West Indian opener Chris Gayle brought a new life in the Bangalore team, who were struggling to win matches.
Gayle in his first match for Bangalore against Kolkata, scored a magnificent century and since then the Bangalore batting line-up looks like a formidable unit.
Tillakaratne Dilshan , Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Saurabh Tiwary are the other big hitters in the side, who on their day can singlehandedly change the course of the game.
Bowling, however, remains to be the major concern for Bangalore. Their spearhead Zaheer Khan doesn't seem to find his rhythm and it has cost Bangalore dear.
Skipper Daniel Vettori along with Syed Mohammad and Sreenath Arvind have done pretty well but doesn't have enough wickets to show against their name.
Punjab, on the other hand, have been inconsistent in both batting and bowling department.
Except openers Paul Valthaty and Adam Gilchrist, no other batsmen have shown the appetite to score runs and Punjab's success against Bangalore will heavily rely on these two.
The likes of Dinseh Karthik, Abhishek Nayar along with foreign imports David Hussey, Ryan McLaren and Ryan Harris need to come good to keep Punjab's hopes of making it to the play-offs alive.
Their bowling too has not been impressive. Seamer Praveen Kumar has not yet found his top form after coming from an injury lay-off and the attack looks pretty weak.
Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla has also not delivered to his caliber — picking four wickets from six games — and need to pull up his socks against a formidable Bangalore batting line-up.
IPL - 4