Mohali, Apr 15 : After beating strong MI in their last match, Rajasthan Royals will look to continue their winning momentum in their next IPL match against Kings XI Punjab at Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium on Tuesday.
In their last match, RR defeated MI on their home-ground by four wickets and are currently placed at the seventh spot with two wins from seven matches.
On the other hand, KXIP are at fifth spot after suffering back-to-back losses against Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore respectively. Overall, the hosts have registered four wins from eight matches.
This is the second encounter between these teams this season, with KXIP having won the first one by 14 runs – that match featured the infamous ‘Mankading’ incident with Ravichandran Ashwin and Jos Buttler.
For Rajasthan, Buttler has been the top-scorer but their batting line-up also includes skipper Rahane, Samson and Steve Smith and they will have to deliver their best with the bat.
English all-rounder Ben Stokes who missed the last match due to an injury will likely make a comeback against Punjab.
In bowling department, RR pacer Jofra Archer has troubled the batsmen with his fast bouncers and deadly yorkers and would look for another good outing against KXIP.
Among others, seamers Jaydev Unadkat and Dhawal Kulkarni along with spinner Shreyas Gopal will have to deliver their best performace if RR want to keep their Playoffs chances alive.
For KXIP, both their explosive openers K L Rahul and Chris Gayle have scored most of their runs and are in good touch. The likes of Mayank Agrawal, Sam Curran and Sarfaraz Khan have also performed well but they lack consistency.
KXIP were extremely sloppy in the field and they dropped catches and conceded extra runs which cost them the match against RCB.
Ravi Ashwin will be hoping for a better effort from his team-mates and the team management will also be aware of their tendency of going down in the second half of the season. They were knocked out of the tournament last year due to the same reason despite starting extremely well.
KXIP pacers, Mohammad Shami, Andrew Tye and all-rounder Sam Curran gave too many runs in the last game and they need to bowl a tight line to support their skipper R Ashwin, who has done well with his bowling so far in the tournament.
In head to head contest, KXIP and RR have played 22 matches so far in the history of the IPL tournament.
RR have won 10 of those games, while KXIP managed to win the remaining eight matches.
