Punjab Kings vs Royal Challengers Bangalore Prediction & Betting Tips -

Prediction published on 07/05/2024, 07:00  by Devesh Jaganath in Indian Premier League Predictions

The Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore will meet in match 58 of the 2024 Indian Premier League on Thursday afternoon. The hosts are in eighth place in the league standings, while the visitors are seventh. It’s do-or-die for both these sides, as a loss here would likely see them eliminated from playoff contention. The Punjab Kings saw their top-four hopes diminish on Sunday when they were beaten by the Chennai Super Kings. CSK posted a target of 168, but with Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh top-scoring with 30 and 27 runs, respectively, PBKS were only able to score 139, coming up 28 runs short. The team is now on eight points after 11 games and trail the top four by four points with just six points left in play. PBKS have largely struggled with the bat in this competition, with none of their batters making it into the top ten run-scorers. Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh are still in the running for the purple cap though, currently on 17 and 15 wickets to date. 

Meanwhile, the Royal Challengers Bangalore are making a late surge for the playoff places but still need a lot to go their way to reach the top four. They are also on eight points after 11 games but have rattled off three consecutive victories after only winning once in their first eight games of the competition. The most recent of those wins came over the weekend when they beat the Gujarat Titans. The Titans set a target of 148, which RCB chased down with four wickets and 6.2 overs to spare. Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli did the majority of the damage at the top of the order, scoring 64(23) and 42(27), respectively, while Yash Dayal, Vyshak Vijay Kumar and Mohammed Siraj all took two wickets each. With that knock, Kohli took back the orange cap, though he is just a single run ahead of CSK’s Ruturaj Gaikwad. RCB beat this opponent earlier in the competition and are the favourites in this one, according to the bookmakers.