Virat versus Maxwell as Royals take on Kings
Dubai: Considered among the finest of the fresh crop of cricketers going around, Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell will lock horns in the battle of batting supremacy as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) meet table toppers Kings XI Punjab here on Monday.
While Kohli has been in scorching form at international level for a while now, the seventh edition of the IPL has been set on fire by Maxwell’s mauling.The Aussie not only has the Orange Cap perched firmly on his sensible head, his audacious strokeplay has ensured the opposition concede some crucial psychological points before the contest actually gets going.
Maxwell’s relentless assault means that Kings are yet to taste a defeat, while Royals, after getting off to winning start, have slipped to two consecutive defeats. While the form of Yuvraj remains a concern, over reliance on Virat and A B deVilliers has been another reason for their indifferent performances. To top it all, the suspense over Chris Gayle robs them off the essential firepower against a side that boasts of the in-form dup of Maxwell and Miller.
Left in disarray after consecutive losses, Royal Challengers Bangalore face the arduous task of taming the yet-to-be-beaten table-toppers Kings XI Punjab when the two sides clash in an IPL match here on Monday.
The contrast in their fortunes could not have been deeper going into tomorrow`s match given that Punjab are yet to taste defeat this IPL while Bangalore have lost two matches on the trot.
RCB, sans West Indian marauder Chris Gayle who is nursing a sore back, were completely outplayed in their most recent match -- against Rajasthan Royals.
Their star-studded batting line-up collapsed to the third lowest IPL total ever before Rajasthan made short work of the paltry 71-run target in Abu Dhabi.
Saturday’s loss was a crushing one and Kohli wants to forget it as quickly as possible but it would be quite a task for his team to turn it around against Punjab, by far the most consistent team of the season so far.
Match detail:
Match: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kings XI Punjab
Date: 28th April 2014
Venue: Dubai International Stadium UAE
Time: 19:30 PKT 18:30 local 14:30 GMT
It would require a very special effort from RCB to stop the powerful Kings batting line-up, something that KKR`s spin combo of Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla managed to do on Saturday before KXIP produced some magic of their own with the ball through the pace pair of Sandeep Sharma and Mitchell Johnson.
A big positive for KXIP is senior opener Virender Sehwag`s return to some form. The veteran, who has fallen out of national reckoning, is slowly getting back into the groove with some decent contributions in the past couple of matches. But Cheteshwar Pujara is still finding his feet in the format even though his individual form has not yet hurt the team too much.