Royal Challengers Look to Regain Momentum Against Kings XI

Mohali: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are looking forward to carry on their winning momentum against Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium here Friday.

Skipper Kumar Sangakkara said Thursday that the team will fight for a win.

'Bangalore is a formidable side but they were beaten by Super Kings in the last game. Bangalore is beatable, we know that,' said Sangakkara at the Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) Stadium here.

Kings XI Punjab are lying at the bottom of the league with one win from six matches.

Sangakkara also said that there was no rift in the team.

"I read various stories about replacement of captaincy, Indian players, international players and coaches. We always see that most of the stories come out when the team is loosing and very few things come when team is winning," he said.

"There is absolutely no such thing, no rift between the players. There is no anger or criticism. Both domestic and international players are working well together and that is the way cricket is. There stories are bound to happen but we are only concentrating on supporting each other and making sure that we win," he said.

Sangakara also dropped hints on Friday's possible eleven.

Kings XI Punjab coach Tom Moody was also optimistic about the forthcoming games and said that they have strong bench strength.

"We are performing really well at the moment and we also want to carry on this momentum in the upcoming games," said all-rounder Roelof van der Merwe here Thursday evening.

"Our top-order is performing very well in this season. It is a good sign for us. Top five batsmen who are scoring good runs always put us in comfortable position in the gamem," he said.

About their strategy against Kings XI Punjab, the South African said: "We will stick to our set game-plan. Our strategy is to win the game against Kings XI Punjab and we will follow it."

Van der Merwe was full of praise for skipper Anil Kumble.

Team news

Kings XI Punjab: KC Sangakkara (capt & wk), YA Abdulla, L Ablish, Amanpreet Singh, AB Barath, Bipul Sharma, MS Bisla (wk), RS Bopara, PP Chawla, K Goel, JR Hopes, DPMD Jayawardene, M Kaif, B Lee, VS Malik, SE Marsh, IK Pathan, RR Powar, RS Sodhi, S Sreesanth, SJ Srivastava, TM Srivastava, J Theron, Yuvraj Singh 

Royal Challengers Bangalore: A Kumble (capt), B Akhil, KP Appanna, MV Boucher (wk), R Dravid, D du Preez, SP Goswami (wk), JH Kallis, V Kohli, B Kumar, P Kumar, A Mithun, EJG Morgan, MK Pandey, KP Pietersen, SPD Smith, S Sriram, DW Steyn, LRPL Taylor, RV Uthappa, RE van der Merwe, R Vinay Kumar, CL White 

Stats and trivia

• Bangalore have conceded the second lowest amount of runs in the middle overs - between seven and 14 - this season: 395.
• Yuvraj Singh averages 14.00 from seven matches in 2010.

Match facts
Friday, April 2, 2010 (day/night)
Start time 20:00 local (14:30 GMT)