Royal Challengers Bangalore, RCB return to their comfort zone as on Tuesday they clash in a crucial match with Kings XI Punjab. A question mark hangs as far as their play-off chances are concerned. In the six matches played last, they have seen four defeats. Now they are at a stage where winning the penultimate contest is a must. If this does not happen, they have no alternative but to win the last match and also all other matches as well. However, many of the players will surely flaunt their favorite, Nike, Addidas and Oakley eyewear during the matches for sure.
The six matches that Bangalore had played were away from home. For this team, a comforting factor would be not to lose a single match even, considering that they would be returning to conditions that are quite familiar to them. It was on April 23rd that the team played at Chinnaswamy Stadium, the last time when Pune Warriors was trounced by 130 runs. They managed to win just two matches at the 6 different venues they had travelled to. Recently, at Ranchi, they were defeated by Kolkata Knight Riders with five wickets and that also on a slow pitch. They were badly hurt by this, besides which Sunrisers Hyderabad got the chance of snatching the fourth position from RCB. On Monday, in an away contest, Mumbai plays Hyderabad.
In the last meeting with their opponent, RCB had the rug pulled from under their feet by David Miller’s hurricane knock. When Bangalore hosts Punjab, it would very much love to return the compliment and on Tuesday, if they do not win, then they would be finding themselves in a hole. To get to the sixteen points, by winning the rest of the three matches, an outside chance too is fancied by the visitors too.
The RCB team is at the fourth position, currently with sixteen points. To make it to the play offs, the remaining two games have to be won by RCB. This is because even KKR with 12 points and Sunrisers Hyderabad with 16 points also stand a chance of qualifying for the games and this is possible if they are able to win the rest of the games.