The Royal Challengers Bangalore will play the Kings XI Punjab in the seventh game of the third edition of the Indian Premier League at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Both sides lost their first games of the tournament, and at the end of the game, there will be one team without a win after having played two games.

Looking at the line-ups of the two sides, it is difficult to choose between the two. However, one gets the sense that the Bangalore team will go into as marginal favourites – 9/10 at Totesport for their win as compared to 11/10 (Bwin) for Punjab to win the match – simply thanks to the better balance in their side.

Both sides were hard done by their batting in the first game of the tournament, but Punjab will know that in terms of sheer talent and depth, Bangalore is a tad stronger. Hence, they will need each one of the top-order batsmen to take onus on themselves and not solely rely on two of their best batsmen, Yuvraj Singh (7/2 at Stan James) and Kumar Sangakkara (3/1 at Stan James to top-score for their side).

Instead, Ravi Bopara (7/2 at Blue Square) and Mohammad Kaif (8/1 at Blue Square to be Punjab’s best batsmen), will need to bat well and see the innings through along with the aggressors.

Bangalore rely heavily on their Indian batsmen to deliver a goodish total, but in the first game, everyone except Jacques Kallis (11/4 at Sky Bet to be the best batsman for Bangalore) failed to get going. Manish Pandey (5/1 at Bet365) and Virat Kohli (6/1 at Stan James to top-score for their side) had gone into the game with much to prove, but did not succeed in even tickling the scorers, while Robin Uthappa (10/1 at Stan James to be the best batsman of the side) only managed a brief 16-ball stay at the crease.

My sense is that much like Manoj Tiwari of the Kolkata Knight Riders, who had begun his tournament with a duck, but smashed a half century next up, the man-in-form Pandey could be the player to watch out for.

Tips:
Favourites: Royal Challengers Bangalore (9/10 at Totesport)
Top Bangalore batsman: Manish Pandey (5/1 at Bet365)
Top Punjab batsman: Yuvraj Singh (7/2 at Stan James)