We have a cracking looking match on offer in the Indian Premier League on Good Friday when two of the top four in the IPL 2025 table meet when the Royal Challengers Bangalore host the Punjab Kings at the Chinnaswamy.
Both of these teams have four wins and two losses on their record with Bangalore above Punjab in the table on just net run rate so whoever wins this will join Delhi on five wins and be nicely placed at the halfway point of their season.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
The Royal Challengers Bangalore are trying their hardest to finally get their hands on the Indian Premier League trophy and you have to give them credit, they have made a perfectly acceptable beginning to their campaign and a win here would give them five from seven matches and need them only needing three more to guarantee a spot in the postseason. Their sights are probably set higher than that though and with the reverse meeting between these two coming along on Sunday, this feels like a big few days for Bangalore.
We are seeing their batting really starting to fire up these days. 174 wasn’t an impossible target against Rajasthan last time out by any means but to cruise there one down was a really standout performance from the top order and given that their lower order have shown their stuff at times this term too, it all bodes well for Bangalore. Their bowling hasn’t always kept things tight. We can excuse them that here because this is a bowlers’ graveyard but it will be interesting to see if they are learning.
Punjab Kings
The Punjab Kings have had a really interesting season so far. They have won four matches and lost two but they have won some extraordinary matches from positions they had no right to win and then they have lost some equally amazing contests. The pick of their wins was last time out when they made a complete hash of their batting effort against Kolkata Knight Riders, posting just 111 from their overs only to see their bowlers get the batters out of huge trouble by defending that score with runs to spare.
Those bowlers needed to come to the party though because in four of the previous five matches they had gone for 200 or more and that isn’t a successful recipe in the long term no matter how good their batters are and the depth that they have with the bat. If the last game was a sign of things to come with the ball for the Punjab outfit then they are going to be in a decent position for the remainder of the competition, especially if they win this one and move to five wins at the halfway point.
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Key Players
Phil Salt caused absolute carnage against Rajasthan Royals last time out and if he can get stuck into this Punjab Kings new ball attack then he could have the visitors under enormous pressure very quickly in this contest.
Glenn Maxwell has delivered with the ball in this tournament at times this season but he is in the side to either finish innings or propel them to bigger and better things. 41 runs in five innings isn’t cutting the mustard and Punjab would welcome him coming good sooner rather than later.
Betting
We should be setup for a high scoring match here on a ground which is renowned for them. Clearly both batting units look in decent order and although Bangalore have a decent bowling unit on paper they rarely live up to expectation on this ground and even if they do they are going to be put under pressure by this Punjab Kings batting unit so I’m coming at this from a high scoring match point of view.
The way I like to play this match is the boundaries. The line is 51.5 which sounds high but everything here is 1, 4 or 6 and it doesn’t take a lot for matches to ignite into boundary fests. Often teams hit more than 10 boundaries in the powerplay on this ground and both sides have openers who go after the bowling so that could easily happen here. Both teams have plenty of batting depth too so I expect the boundaries to flow as they have done in most Punjab matches this season.
Tips
Back Over 51.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
