The Kings XI Punjab will travel to the Motera in Ahmedabad to play their fifth game of the tournament against the Rajasthan Royals. Both sides are placed at the bottom of the ladder with only one win from four games, and will go into the game knowing that another loss could almost put them in an unenviable position.

Blue Square offers 8/13 for the Kings XI Punjab to win two in a row after they had clinched the rather exciting tie against Chennai Super Kings in the Super Over. As compared to that, the Shane Warne-led Rajasthan Royals will need to do much better than their win against the Kolkata Knight Riders to impress the punters; going at 13/10 (Boylesports) into the game.

The good news for the Kings XI Punjab will obviously be the return to form of Yuvraj Singh (4/1 at Coral to top-score for his side). Not only did he play a matured knock of 40 while the Punjab side batted, he also hit the winning runs in the Super Over off the bowling of Muthiah Muraliatharan. At the other end, they have Kumar Sangakkara (4/1 at Boylesports to be the best batsman), who has struggled through the tournament; so much so that Irfan Pathan (6/1 at Blue Square to be the best bat for Punjab) was given a chance over him during the Super Over. All eyes will also be on Mahela Jayawardene (6/1 at Sky Bet to top-score for Punjab), who hasn’t yet got too many opportunities in the competition, but has reinvented his game to suit this format, and could be under-rated by many of his opponents.

The Royals, on the other hand, will depend a lot on Yusuf Pathan (9/2 at Sky Bet to be Rajasthan’s best batsman) who has yet to get going since his first match century against Mumbai. The positive thing about their win in the previous game was the emergence of Adam Voges (11/2 at Boylesports to top-score for the Royals) down the order to do a job that Ravindra Jadeja has done for them in the past. Michael Lumb’s (4/1 at Blue Square to be the best bat) couple of opportunities have not yet resulted in too many runs, but one hopes that the captain affords him a couple of more opportunities before giving up on him, while the Indians Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (11/2 at Bet365) and Paras Dogra (10/1 at Sky Bet to top-score for Rajasthan) need to dig in and get the runs in the middle order.

Tips:
Favourites: Rajasthan Royals (13/10 at Boylesports)
Top Rajasthan batsman: Michael Lumb (4/1 at Blue Square)
Top Punjab batsman: Mahela Jayawardene (6/1 at Sky Bet)