Daijiworld Media Network
Bangalore, May 2: Hello and a warm welcome to match number 44 of the Indian Premier League. Royal Challengers Bangalore had a rude jolt after 3 wins in a succession with a crashing defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders. Punjab on the other hand come in with a terrific victory over defending champions, Chennai Super Kings. With the business end of the competetion approaching, the rush for the places in the play-offs is increasing. Bangalore have 2 games in their den and would love to pocket maximum points.
Kings XI Punjab have won the toss and elected to field
Husssey: Gilly is coming up well and should be back very soon. We need to win today's match and join in the cluster of teams with 10 points. We will have a bowl. There might be some moisture and we hope to exploit the surface. We have made a few changes. Ryan Harris, Abhishek Nayar and Paras Dogra are in the team. David Miller and the two spinners miss out.
Vettori: We had 3 wins in a row before losing badly in our last game. The wicket will be pretty good over the entire stretch of the game. We would have probably bowled on this pitch. The pitch looks to be a bit tacky. We have made 2 changes in our playing XI. Andrew McDonald and Asad Pathan are in.
Andrew McDonald: It is a pleasure to play in front of the home-crowd. They probably make the loudest noise in the world. We need to probably win 3-4 matches in a row to make the face-offs. Our recent record has been pretty good. The last match was pretty hard on us. The dug-out is a great place to be in, it is always hard for some players to miss out on games. We are looking forward to the match.
Teams:
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers(w), Saurabh Tiwary, Andrew McDonald, Daniel Vettori(c), Asad Pathan, Vinay Kumar, Zaheer Khan, KP Appanna
Kings XI Punjab (Playing XI): Mandeep Singh, Shaun Marsh, David Hussey(c), Azhar Mahmood, Abhishek Nayar, Paras Dogra, Nitin Saini(w), Piyush Chawla, Ryan Harris, Praveen Kumar, Parvinder Awana.