The Kings XI Punjab will face the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 24th match of the Indian Premier League at Kingsmead in Durban on Friday.

Punjab (21/5 at Betfair to win the tournament) has already won three of the five matches they have played in so far – three in succession in fact – while Bangalore are at the other end of the spectrum with only a couple of wins; one in their first match and another in their last!

888 Sport offers 8/11 for Punjab to win this match as against 6/5 at Boylesport for Bangalore and this isn’t without reason. The Kings have begun to string together some good partnerships and all of a sudden the bowling has started to look much more balanced.

Kumar Sangakkara (7/2 at Stan James to be top Punjab batsman) has had a couple of really good innings, and he has suddenly shot up to be the favourite to score the highest score for his team. That does not discount the out-of-form Yuvraj Singh (4/1 at Stan James to be top Punjab batsman) or Ravinder Bopara (4/1 at Ladbrokes to be top Punjab batsman), who both can come good at opportune times or a Mahela Jayawardene (13/2 at Bet 365) who can play the perfect foil through the duration of the inning.

The Bangalore team has been struggling with their batting, none more than the captain Kevin Pietersen (4/1 at Ladbrokes to be top Bangalore batsman). Rahul Dravid is still out of the tournament and not expected to play tomorrow, while the chances of Jesse Ryder and Robin Uthappa getting picked are bleak. Sreevats Goswami (5/1 at Boylesports to be top Bangalore batsman) had done well in the previous match, but my sense is the Reolf van der Merwe could just be promoted up the order and Bet 365’s offer of 16/1 for him to be the top Bangalore batsman could reduce in the matches to come.

Dale Steyn, unfortunately, is out with an injury and isn’t expected to play against Punjab, and that is one reason why Praveen Kumar (9/2 at Stan James to be most economic) and Pankaj Singh assume a lot of importance. Bangalore had opened their bowling with spin at both ends, but I am not sure if the experiment can be continued if the pitch doesn’t support that kind of bowling. With Kallis struggling with his bowling form, it is rather difficult to have Bangalore have a really economic bowler in their ranks apart from Kumar.

Punjab will heavily rely on Yusuf Abdullah to get the breakthrough and the spinners in Ramesh Powar and Piyush Chawla (4/1 at Stan James to be most economic bowler) to throttle the run-scoring.

Tip:
Favourite team: Punjab (8/11 at 888 Sport)
Top Bangalore batsman: Kevin Pietersen (4/1 at Ladbrokes)
Top Punjab batsman: Ravinder Bopara (4/1 at Ladbrokes)
Most economic bowler: Yusuf Abdullah