Punjab Kings will lock horns against Rajasthan Royals in the 52nd match of the ongoing Indian Premier League at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Saturday.
Punjab Kings have managed five wins out of their 10 matches while Rajasthan Royals have won six out of their 10 games.
Punjab had won the previous contest against table-toppers Gujarat Titans by eight wickets and that win must have given them a lot of confidence. Punjab hasn’t managed two back-to-back victories so far and they will be looking to build the right momentum in the upcoming matches.
On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals had lost their previous encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders and they will be looking to get back to winning ways.
Punjab had come up with a good bowling performance against Gujarat Titans as they had restricted the opposition at 143. Kagiso Rabada was at his absolute best as the South African pacer scalped four wickets for his team. Furthermore, Shikhar Dhawan scored a mature knock of 62 runs off just 53 balls to get his team over the line.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals could only manage 152 runs against KKR and they would want to pull up their socks in the batting unit. Sanju Samson could not get going even though he scored a fifty as he failed to change gears.
Match Prediction: Rajasthan Royals will enter the contest as favorites against Punjab Kings as they are in better form.
PBKS Predicted Playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal (c), Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Odean Smith, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Kagiso Rabada.
Rajasthan Royals Probable Playing XI: Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Karun Nair, Ravichandran Ashwin, Obed McCoy, Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna.
