The Punjab Kings take on the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Friday April 30th in the Indian Premier League, and our expert tipster has cast their eye over the big match. He’s taken a look at both teams’ starts to the season, and is confident in a win for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Punjab Kings v Royal Challengers Bangalore
30th April
Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
Live on Sky Sports Cricket
Punjab Kings v Royal Challengers Bangalore Preview
It’s second v eighth in the 26th match of the 2021 IPL season, as RCB look to continue their fantastic start to the year against a team who are struggling in PK. The Royal Challengers and the Kings both started with opening wins against Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals respectively. Since then, RCB went on a winning streak while their opponents in this game began a losing one. The head-to-head records are pretty even for this fixture, with Punjab Kings having won 14 to Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 12. The sides have squared off 26 times overall, with the Punjab Kings actually winning last year’s series between these two outfits.
Punjab Kings v Royal Challengers Bangalore Odds
We’ve got RCB as the favourites at 20/29, while the bottom side Punjab Kings are 21/20 underdogs. If you’re a big enough risk-taker to back a draw, you’ll get wide odds of 13/1, but that’s never happened before in this fixture so we can’t recommend it.
Punjab Kings v Royal Challengers Bangalore Tips
Both sides actually won their opening fixtures. Punjab Kings beat the Rajasthan Royals, while the Royal Challengers defied the odds to beat last year’s champions in the Mumbai Indians. Our win probability calculator has it in favour of RCB, but PK will be looking to turn their season around so we wouldn’t count them out. We’re backing the legendary KL Rahul to be the top batsman for the Punjab Kings, and Virat Kohli to be player of the match.
KL Rahul to be home team top batsman – 7/4
He opened the season by winning in this market, and he was very close in their game against the Delhi Capitals. We think he’ll have another good game this time around and be top batsman for the Punjab Kings.
Virat Kohli to be player of the match – 15/2
He’s favourite to be named top batsman for his team, and is also high in the market to be the player of the match, which is what we’re backing Virat Kohli for this market.
Squads
Punjab Kings Squad
KL Rahul (c/wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Mandeep Singh, Prabsimran Singh, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Sarfaraz Khan, Deepak Hooda, Murugan Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Harpreet Brar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Porel, Darshan Nalkande, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Jhye Richardson, Shahrukh Khan, Riley Meredith, Moises Henriques, Jalaj Saxena, Utkarsh Singh, Fabian Allen, Saurabh Kumar
Royal Challengers Bangalore squad
Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Navdeep Saini, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Shahbaz Ahmed, Josh Philippe, Pavan Deshpande, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Devdutt Padikkal, S. Bharat, Suyash Prabhudessai, Daniel Christian, Kyle Jamieson, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Rajat Patidar, Sachin Baby, Glenn Maxwell.
For more betting odds on the 2021 Indian Premier League, head over to the NetBet Cricket page.
*Odds are subject to change.