Glenn Maxwell: Certainly instills a lot of belief in the team. We certainly knew we weren't the best with the bat but we realized that there was something in the wicket that we could exploit. Obviously while defending a low total, you need a lot of things to go your way. I felt the energy we brought throughout the innings was a really good sign of things to come. Hopefully, we can keep the standards on the field and keep that energy. Hopefully, helps us going forward. Well hopefully, the rain goes away. With rain around since the last two days, the outfield is gonna be soft and slow. Scoring might not be as high as I have probably known in the last few years. But should be a really good contest. The small boundaries will always be enticing the batters. You have to be good with your skills as a bowler. The lucky thing about being an all-rounder, a couple of things about my bowling going really well. Will join the party at some stage. Probably a bit of luck and something going your way as a batter. Probably should have reviewed the first ball of the tournament that I faced (laughs). Things might have been different. I think making sure I keep my energy and am still upbeat. I have some of the best guys watching me train. Fingers crossed and I might turn it around with the bat.

19:00 Local Time, 13:30 GMT, 19:00 IST: We should've had the toss now, but the rain remains steady and we will have to wait. We do have plenty of buffer time before we actually start to lose overs. 

More from Kaushik: 10 mins to toss and there's a steady drizzle. All covers in place and groundstaff nowhere in sight. Safe to assume we won't have the toss on time!

Glenn Maxwell: Certainly instills a lot of belief in the team. We certainly knew we weren't the best with the bat but we realized that there was something in the wicket that we could exploit. Obviously while defending a low total, you need a lot of things to go your way. I felt the energy we brought throughout the innings was a really good sign of things to come. Hopefully, we can keep the standards on the field and keep that energy. Hopefully, helps us going forward. Well hopefully, the rain goes away. With rain around since the last two days, the outfield is gonna be soft and slow. Scoring might not be as high as I have probably known in the last few years. But should be a really good contest. The small boundaries will always be enticing the batters. You have to be good with your skills as a bowler. The lucky thing about being an all-rounder, a couple of things about my bowling going really well. Will join the party at some stage. Probably a bit of luck and something going your way as a batter. Probably should have reviewed the first ball of the tournament that I faced (laughs). Things might have been different. I think making sure I keep my energy and am still upbeat. I have some of the best guys watching me train. Fingers crossed and I might turn it around with the bat.

Josh Hazlewood: Our three of our quick bowlers, they are a little bit different. No matter who takes the new ball, we have got a role to play. They are great swing bowlers upfront. They are wicket-takers and I try to do my thing. Powerplay has been the best part for us with the ball so far. It's going to interesting, it's raining at the moment. I know the outfield dries quickly here, so as soon as the rain stops, we can get on the field quickly. In a couple of games here, it's been a great learning curve for us. Some guys have played a lot of cricket here, some haven't played as much. We are always learning on the go. Got to hit the good length, hit the top of stump. Need to go full and swing the ball in the powerplay.

18:45 Local Time, 13:15 GMT, 18:45 IST: We always have that one rain interrupted game in Bengaluru every IPL season and this could be one such day. As I said before, the city has seen plenty of rainfall over the past 7 days, but it's nothing that threatens to wash out a game. And with the sub-air drainage, need I say anything more?

Our man Kaushik Rangarajan is at the ground and he has some bad news: 'A slight drizzle has returned and hence there's no activity', he says and then adds that the shower has become heavier. Around 20 minutes for toss, but we could have a delay

18:30 Local Time, 13:00 GMT, 18:30 IST: It has been a strange season for the Royal Challengers from Bengaluru. Invincible away from home with four wins out of four games and vulnerable at home with two losses from two matches. They're back at the Chinnaswamy today and they'll hope to put an end to their losing streak at home. Unlike the batting paradise of the yore, something has changed in Bengaluru and Dinesh Karthik, RCB's batting coach did suggest that batting has been challenging, especially for the ones who get first use of the surface. RCB lost both the tosses here and they ended up making scores of 169 and 163, batting first. If they were thwarted by seam and swing against the Titans, they were undone by the two-paced nature against the spinners from Delhi. Tonight might not be any different - it has been raining every day from the last one week and it wasn't any different today as well - thick dark clouds in the evening which brought about some rain with it. It has relented now and with Chinnaswamy's famed drainage system, we should be having the all-important toss at the scheduled time.

Preview by Kaushik Rangarajan

"I thought this was [already] a season-defining moment," said Ricky Ponting after Punjab Kings defended 111 against the champions. Even in defeat, he believed the fight would've meant something. But PBKS didn't lose, they made history. Just a game after failing to defend 245, pulling off the lowest successful defence in IPL history came as a jolt of belief, the kind that can turn confidence into swagger.

And there is no dearth of swag or intent in that PBKS line-up with big-hitters abound. In fact, it's a trait they share with their next opponents, RCB, along with a 4-2 win-loss record heading towards the half-way point of the league season. That sets up a potential bat-a-thon in Bengaluru between two of the form sides in the competition, the first of two meetings in the space of three days.

But pitches at the Chinnaswamy Stadium have thrown up more questions than runs this season, a trend that has exacerbated RCB's long-standing troubles at home. In both games here so far, they've batted first and failed to reach 170. Against Gujarat Titans, they were undone by Mohammed Siraj's swing and seam. Then Delhi Capitals stopped them in their tracks with spinners getting bite and hold off the surface, leading team mentor Dinesh Karthik to admit that he and his team have been taken by surprise.

RCB, armed with batting depth, have tried to bash their way out of danger at home, much like PBKS attempted on that tricky New Chandigarh pitch, only to lose wickets in clumps. Bengaluru could, once again, demand more craft than brute force, with both sets of batters needing to pair power with nuance. Rajat Patidar's side has looked more assured on the road, and with conditions at home feeling increasingly unfamiliar, maybe the mind trick for RCB lies in treating Chinnaswamy like an away venue.

When: Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Punjab Kings, Match 34, IPL 2025, April 18, 19:30 IST

Where: M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

What to expect: Unseasonal rain has lingered over the city in the build-up, with some scattered showers forecast on match night. Either way, captains will want to bowl first given the ground's (in)famous characteristics and the 100% record for chasing teams here in this season.

Head to Head: RCB 16-17 PBKS. RCB trail in this fixture despite winning the last three clashes.

Team News:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Injury & Availability: No injury/availability concerns to report

Tactics & Matchups: Maxwell has had a troubled start to the season but a game against a former team in familiar climes may have come at the right time as he strives to rediscover his mojo. That said, he will come up against Krunal Pandya, a bowler who had dismissed him five times in the IPL. Krunal in fact has also managed to keep Shreyas Iyer (88.89 SR) and Marcus Stoinis (110.71 SR) quiet previously.

Probable XII: Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Suyash Sharma

Punjab Kings

Injury & Availability: Lockie Ferguson is unlikely to play a part in the remainder of IPL 2025 after picking up a suspected hip injury in the SRH game.

Tactics & Matchups: Yuzvendra Chahal isn't just the IPL's leading wicket-taker, he's Chinnaswamy's old puppet master, and on evidence of the KKR game, the strings are still in his hands. No bowler has more T20 wickets at this venue. Sixteen of his 24 IPL scalps since 2024 have been right-handers. With RCB stacking six of them in their top eight and with some promise of grip from the surface, Chahal won't need a second invitation to spin a web.

Probable XII: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nehal Wadhera, Josh Inglis (wk)/Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Shashank Singh, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak/Yash Thakur

Did you know?

- Of the 75 players who have batted at least 10 times in the IPL since 2024, only Glenn Maxwell has a sub-10 average (6.64)

- Phil Salt is the leading run-scorer in PowerPlays this season: he has hit 11 sixes and has a strike-rate of 193.61 in the first-six overs

- Yuzvendra Chahal has eight four-wicket hauls in IPL - tied for most with Sunil Narine

What they said:

"He [Rajat Patidar] has been very good. The best thing is that he's been calm. That's what we need, especially in this format because when you lose matches, the easy thing is to panic. And that's not what he has done. We lost two matches, but he's been the same whether we won or we lost. So he's been handling everything very well." - Bhuvneshwar Kumar

"I have never, ever heard a negative word coming out of his mouth. When your coach is such a character, the way he inspires everyone, automatically when players listen to such things from the coach, the confidence boosts up." - Nehal Wadhera on the Ponting impact at Punjab Kings.

Squads:

Punjab Kings Squad: Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh(w), Shreyas Iyer(c), Nehal Wadhera, Josh Inglis, Shashank Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Suryansh Shedge, Yash Thakur, Harpreet Brar, Praveen Dubey, Pyla Avinash, Musheer Khan, Harnoor Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Azmatullah Omarzai, Aaron Hardie, Vishnu Vinod, Marcus Stoinis

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Squad: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar(c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Yash Dayal, Devdutt Padikkal, Rasikh Dar Salam, Manoj Bhandage, Jacob Bethell, Swapnil Singh, Abhinandan Singh, Swastik Chikara, Mohit Rathee, Nuwan Thushara, Romario Shepherd, Lungi Ngidi