Punjab Kings (PBKS) host Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the 66th Indian Premier League 2023 (IPL) match at Dharamsala's Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium on Friday, May 19. Both teams require two points from this fixture to remain alive in the race for playoff qualification this season and also depend on other teams' results with just five group-stage matches remaining.
Rajasthan Royals enjoy a positive net run rate with 12 points from 13 games. A big win will guide them to fourth position in the points table, on a level with Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore. But both MI and RCB play their last respective group-stage game after this fixture and will have a morale-boosting advantage of playing later. Meanwhile, Punjab Kings suffered a big blow as they lost against Delhi Capitals in their last game by 15 runs. Punjab Kings also have 12 points from 13 matches but their net run rate of -0.308 is unlikely to guide them to the top-four finish even if they win against Rajasthan.
PBKS vs RR Probable Playing XIs
Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Prabhsimran Singh, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sam Curran, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Nathan Ellis, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh (Impact Player)
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(c & wk), Joe Root, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal, KM Asif (Impact Player)
PBKS vs RR Head-to-Head Record
Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals have faced each other on 25 occasions where PBKS have recorded 11 wins while RR have managed to win 14 games so far. PBKS have won eight games against RR while batting first while the latter have recorded seven wins while batting first in this encounter. Punjab won the most recent encounter against Rajasthan Royals but that was their only second win from the last six meetings between two teams.
Matches Played - 25 | PBKS Won - 11 | RR Won - 14 | NR - 0
PBKS vs RR Head-to-Head Record at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala
This is the first time both Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals are facing each other in Dharamsala.
Matches Played - 0 | PBKS Won - 0 | RR Won - 0 | NR - 0
Punjab Kings vs Rajasthan Royals in Last Encounter
Both teams last played each other on April 5 this season at Guwahati's Barsapara Cricket Stadium. Punjab Kings posted a total of 197/4 while batting first with skipper Shikhar Dhawan smashing 86 off 56 and Prabhsimran Singh scoring 60 off just 34. While chasing, Ravichandran Ashwin surprisingly came in as the opener but the move was foiled.
Sanju Samson smashed 42 off 25 while batting at number four and Shimron Hetmyer added 36 off 18 to help the Royals reach closer to the target. But Nathan Ellis' spell of 4/30 restricted Rajasthan Royals to 192/7 and helped Punjab to a narrow five-run victory.
