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Bangalore: Kings XI Punjab skipper Kumar Sangakkara won the toss and opted to bat against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League encounter at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Tuesday.
Kings XI Punjab, tamed by Delhi Daredevils in their first outing, also have issues on hand, especially with their fortified batting failing comprehensively at Mohali.
Yuvraj Singh's fitness certainly must be a bother. It seems the left hander is yet to recover completely from the wrist injury he sustained in the series against Bangladesh. Against Daredevils, his bottom hand lost grip of the handle as he shaped to hit Farveez Maharoof over the top, meekly holing out to Gautam Gambhir at mid-on.
Smarting from their seven-wicket loss to Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore will be determined to redeem their pride in front of home fans.
If RCB want to raise the performance bar as they had belatedly done in South Africa last season, they have to get their act together quickly before their hopes of making it to the semi-finals is blown away at the very start of competition.
Except Jacques Kallis, who resolutely batted through the 20-over innings, the rest of the RCB batters came a cropper. Much was expected of Goswami, Virat Kohli and Manish Pandey, but the talented triumvirate fell to impetuous strokes.
The two teams have a similar tale to share. Like RCB, Kings XI found only on significant contribution from Ravi Bopara (52). Otherwise, there was precious little contribution from other batters, including captain Kumar Sangakkara (17), Yuvraj and Mahela Jayawardene.
Team
Royal Challengers Bangalore: JH Kallis, MK Pandey, RV Uthappa, V Kohli, R Dravid, EJG Morgan, MV Boucher (wk), P Kumar, A Kumble (capt), DW Steyn, R Vinay Kumar
Kings XI Punjab: KC Sangakkara (capt & wk), MS Bisla, RS Bopara, DPMD Jayawardene, Yuvraj Singh, IK Pathan, M Kaif, PP Chawla, Bipul Sharma, YA Abdulla, S Sreesanth
