Bengaluru, May 4 (Cricketnmore) A confident Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) will aim to keep their hopes of reaching the play-offs alive when they take on bottom-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here on Friday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
With eight losses and two wins, Bangalore are currently at the eighth spot and are decidedly out of the running for the IPL play-offs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
On the other hand, Punjab, who defeated Delhi Daredevils by 10 wickets in their last outing, are at the fifth spot with four wins and five losses.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Failing in almost all departments of the game, Bangalore would certainly like to spoil Punjab's party who are still in the race for the knockout stage.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Bangalore will blame their star-studded batting line-up for their predicament as despite boasting several quality batsmen like Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Shane Watson, they have failed to click in unison.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The bowling and fielding departments are also not performing up to the standard for Bengalore. Many catches were dropped in the last match against Mumbai Indians which resulted in a five-wicket defeat for them.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
On the other hand, after defeating Delhi by 10 wickets last week, Punjab are in a positive mood as both batsmen and bowlers are performing in unison.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the bowling department, Varun Aaron, Sandeep Sharma, Mohit Sharma and T. Natarajan did a fantastic job. Sandeep Sharma returned figures of 4\/20 as Delhi were bundled out for a mere 67 runs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The batsmen also stepped up to the occasion in the last match. Needing only 68 runs for a win, Punjab crossed the line in barely 7.5 overs with a half-century in quick time by New Zealand star Martin Guptill.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Guptill remained unbeaten on 50 off 27 balls with six boundaries and three sixes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
So if Bangalore want to win Friday's match, they need to re-strategise their plan even as Punjab skipper Glenn Maxwell would like to continue the momentum from their last match.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Source - Agency<\/p>\r\n", "image": "https:\/\/img.cricketnmore.com\/uploads\/2017\/05\/rcb-vs-kxip.jpg", "alt_img": "IPL: Down-and-out RCB face confident Kings XI Punjab", "alt_title": "IPL: Down-and-out RCB face confident Kings XI Punjab", "image1": "", "video": "", "seo_title": "IPL: Down-and-out Bangalore face confident Punjab (Preview)", "seo_desc": "Bengaluru, May 4 (Cricketnmore) A confident Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) will aim to keep their hopes of reaching the play-offs alive when they take on bottom-placed", "seo_keywords": "Kings XI Punjab, Royal Challengers Bangalore", "tag": "", "tagging": "", "status": "1", "img_rpt": "0", "google": "0", "standout": "0", "edapps": "0", "pulse": "0", "no_index": "0", "feed": "0", "fixture": "0", "slug": "ipl-down-and-out-rcb-face-confident-kings-xi-punjab", "user_id": "0", "read_count": "0", "ians_date": "0000-00-00", "ians_time": "00:00:00", "server_time": "0000-00-00 00:00:00", "trash": "0", "view_count": "1847", "page_break": "0", "instant_articles": "0", "auto_link": "0", "created": "2017-05-04 16:35:00", "updated": "2017-05-04 16:35:00", "img_from": "", "img_source": "", "schedule_publish": "0000-00-00 00:00:00", "news_keywords": null, "livescore_text": null, "livescore_link": null, "btn_text": null, "resend_feed": "0", "google_feed": "0", "read_more": "0", "posted_by": "1", "jio_date": "2017-05-04 16:35:00", "scheduled": "0", "news_now": "1", "breaking_news": "0", "google_date": "2017-05-04 16:35:00", "featured": "0", "pred_match_id": null, "article_content_type": null, "link": "https:\/\/www.cricketnmore.com\/cricket-news\/ipl-down-and-out-rcb-face-confident-kings-xi-punjab-26570" }