Punjab Kings’ clashes with almost every team have gone down to the wire in this edition of the Indian Premier League. In our previous encounter against Royal Challengers Bengaluru this season, we narrowly missed out on a win despite our bowlers' solid performances. 

Dinesh Karthik's attacking batting sealed the deal for RCB while we also witnessed another of  Virat Kohli’s stellar performances. Now as we prepare for the upcoming game at home, the Shers are determined to come out on top and turn the tide to our favor.

The recent clash against Chennai Super Kings saw a solid performance from our bowlers. Though we ended up on the losing side, the clash saw Harshal Patel and Rahul Chahar chipping in with three wickets each while maintaining an economy rate of around 6. Our bowlers constantly troubled the batters and restricted them to 167/9 in 20 overs.

Rahul Chahar, who has been in a consistent pursuit for wickets, yet again showed his magic against a strong Chennai Super Kings. Even while facing a line-up of left handers, Chahar maintained his line way outside the off stump giving them no room to attack. He ended his spell with three wickets while giving away just 23 runs.

Another notable mention was Harshal Patel, who is also in the race for Purple cap. He executed those slow dipping yorkers to perfection which also earned him the prized wicket of MS Dhoni for a rare golden duck. He has got better each game as he gained back his momentum and controlled his slower deliveries at the death to perfection.

With our bowlers stepping up at the right time, we were able to restrict CSK to a par total. But unfortunately, our batters could not build any strong partnerships in the middle and we had to end up on the losing side. Prabhsimran Singh gave a strong start as he scored a quickfire 30 runs off 23 balls.

On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bengaluru are coming into this game after three consecutive wins. In their recent encounter at home against Gujarat Titans, with their clinical bowling effort, they restricted GT to just 147 runs. Though the chase wasn’t easy for Bengaluru, Dinesh Karthik yet again rescued the team from a collapse to take them over the line.

As we look back at the head-to-head numbers between both the teams, it is proving to be very close. Punjab holds the lead with 17 wins whereas Bengaluru stands with 15 wins. These numbers are just enough to prove how exciting the contest can get when these teams take each other on. 

Bengaluru coming after three consecutive wins and Punjab being determined to win this contest makes it even more interesting. The clash has also seen quick-fire knocks from Jonny Bairstow in 2022 where he posted 66 off just 29 deliveries. The fans would be expecting to witness something similar at Dharamshala from our batters and get the team back to winning ways.