Bengaluru, April 18 (IANS) Punjab Kings have won the toss and elected to field first against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the 34th match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, which has been reduced to 14 overs each side because of rain that lashed the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Friday. The batting power-play for each innings will be 4 overs.

Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer said, “We will bowl first. It's a good ground to chase, and it's a rain-interrupted game, overs have been reduced, we will have a fair idea of how the wicket will play, and that was always the plan. Stoinis comes in for Maxwell, and Harpreet Brar is in. We need to have the right players at the right place, especially the angles.”

Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Rajat Patidar said, “We have to be smart in adapting to the conditions, we'll try our best. A bit sticky, but the surface looks hard, we will put up a good total on the board. Same team, but I'm confused with the impact player.”

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have had a rather unusual IPL 2025 campaign so far — flawless on the road with four wins in as many away games, yet winless at home with two consecutive defeats. They're back at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday night, hoping to finally break their losing streak on home turf.

Unlike its previous reputation as a batting haven, the Bengaluru surface has proven tricky this season, particularly for teams batting first. RCB’s batting coach Dinesh Karthik acknowledged that scoring has been difficult, especially early in the innings. In both home matches, RCB lost the toss and had to set a target, managing only 169 and 163 respectively.

Playing XIs:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Yash Dayal

Impact Substitutes: Devdutt Padikkal, Rasikh Dar Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh

Punjab Kings: Priyansh Arya, Nehal Wadhera, Shreyas Iyer (c), Shashank Singh, Josh Inglis (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Harpreet Brar, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal

Impact Substitutes: Prabhsimran Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Suryansh Shedge, Glenn Maxwell, Praveen Dubey