R. Ashwin, captain of Kings XI Punjab won the toss and decided to bowl first against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
RCB made two changes, bringing in Washington Sundar for Pawan Negi and Tim Southee for Dale Steyn who has a shoulder niggle.
Kings XI also made a couple of changes, bringing in Nicholas Pooran and Ankit Rajpoot for Sam Curran and Harpreet Brar.
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The relief was evident on Virat Kohli’s face on Sunday. When it seemed to all the world that M.S. Dhoni had pulled off another spectacular escape, RCB sneaked home. Defeat to CSK would have formally ended RCB’s already faint hopes of progress in the competition. As it turned out, Parthiv Patel’s throw hit the stumps, and RCB still has something to play for.
Kohli’s men will hope to carry that winning feeling into their next game, against Kings XI Punjab at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. A huge factor in RCB’s renaissance has been Dale Steyn. The South African fast bowler arrived, as Parthiv pointed out, “without any baggage of what had happened in the tournament before”.
And he has been excellent, taking two wickets each — in the PowerPlay overs — against KKR and CSK. It’s something RCB’s bowlers had been failing to do earlier, and it has made a palpable difference.
Kohli (387) and A.B. de Villiers (332) remain RCB’s leading scorers but it must please the captain that Parthiv and Moeen Ali have also contributed with the bat in recent fixtures. Wednesday’s game will be Moeen’s last for RCB this season, with England’s cricketers asked to report on April 26 for the start of their World Cup preparations.
Kohli admitted on Sunday that sending Moeen down the order at six against CSK was perhaps too much of a demotion. “Having one game left in the season for him, you might just see him come up the order and enjoy himself a little bit,” he said post-match.
