Kings XI Punjab have a mountain to climb as they prepare to take on the mighty Rajasthan Royals at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad tonight.
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George Bailey’s Punjab have just one win from four games and have suffered successive defeats.
They are taking on a Royals outfit that has won all five of its games, but the quality of opposition isn’t their biggest challenge at the moment. Punjab have some major issues in the batting department to tackle.
Skipper Bailey is the only batsman to have posted a half-century this season and it is imperative the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Murali Vijay get among the runs soon.
Their bowling, spearheaded by Aussie Mitchell Johnson, is in slightly better condition and youngsters Anureet Singh and Sandeep Sharma have bowled decently.
The two seamers have picked up seven wickets from four games, which has given coach Sanjay Bangar something to hold on to.
The best ever start to an @IPL season has been 5 wins out of 5; by @lionsdenkxip in 2014 and now the #Royals in 2015! #AlwaysARoyal
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) April 21, 2015
“I am happy with the way our young seamers have bowled,” he said.
“Sandeep and Anureet have both bowled very well in most of the games we’ve played. In three of our four matches, the opposition has been five down at the end of the 15th over.
“That’s a good quality to have. Those boys have a very good future ahead of them.”
If Punjab need any indication as to how difficult the job at hand is, they only have to look at the way the Royals decimated Chennai Super Kings in their previous match. In what was a clash between the two unbeaten sides of the league, the Royals eased home with eight wickets and 10 balls in hand chasing a decent target of 157.
Rajasthan have been further boosted by the addition of Shane Watson to their line-up, who took over the leadership duties from Steven Smith and was on the money from the outset. Watson also scored a superb 73 and put on a 144-run partnership with Ajinkya Rahane (76) to seal victory against Chennai.
Apart from their batting, Royals’ bowling has also been effective with 43-year-old leg-spinner Pravin Tambe claiming five wickets at a superb economy of 6.76.
