Their winning streak halted by defending champions Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore will hope Harshal Patel returns to the playing eleven and contribute in bringing their campaign back on track when they face Delhi Capitals in the IPL match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.
With Afridi ready to bowl his toe-crushing yorkers, what could go wrong for Pakistan?
Mark Waugh names his top-five for T20 World Cup.
Adam Zampa picked up two wickets in a miserly spell of leg spin bowling as Australia edged India by four runs in an enthralling rain-shortened Twenty20 International in Brisbane on Wednesday.
There seems to be no love lost between India and Australia players as visiting skipper Steve Smith, on Monday, appeared to have used cuss words against Murali Vijay after the home team opener claimed to have taken a catch that was deemed not clean.
The 21-year-old Lucknow Super Giants fast bowler has turned heads with his raw pace and razor-sharp control.
Pandya (25) kept his cool while facing a relentless Australian attack after Kohli's dismissal in the final over and wrapped up the win with a boundary off Daniel Sams.
The nail-biting win over defending champions Mumbai Indians was certainly a morale-lifter but the inconsistent Kings XI Punjab have another tough battle at hand when they take on table toppers Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League, in Dubai, on Tuesday.
Kings XI Punjab captain George Bailey heaped praise on Glenn Maxwell and Thisara Perera after the five-wicket win against Hobart Hurricanes in Mohali and promised his team will get better in the Champions League T20.
Skipper K L Rahul scored a combative 91 and young Harpreet Brar shone with bat and ball as Punjab Kings beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 34 runs in the IPL match, in Ahmedabad, on Friday.
KL Rahul was effusive in his praise for 25-year-old Brar.
KXIP got its campaign back on track with three consecutive wins -- over mighty Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore and the KL Rahul-led side would be hoping to carry the winning momentum forward to break into top four.
'That was proper (batting) from those two, it set the tone for how we want to play our cricket, take the game on.'
The match looked like a Jadeja vs RCB contest. What an all-round show!
India could field three spinners against Australia in the final.
Sri Lanka's Chamika Karunaratne picked up three wickets, including the crucial one of Glenn Maxwell, to trigger an Australian collapse as the hosts won the rain-hit second one-day international by 26 runs.
Kings XI run into a RCB squad which has grown in confidence by leaps and bounds since their last meeting.
He looks to be in the form of his life, as Punjab had no ammunition to outmanoeuvre him.
Glen Maxwell and James Faulkner stitched up a 80-run partnership (off 63 balls) to help Australia beat India by three wickets in the 3rd ODI at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday and clinch the series 3-0.
The match, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, will also be a face-off between skippers KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, both seen as future India captaincy material.
Australia swashbuckling all-rounder Glenn Maxwellbelieves that the former skipper Michael Clarke didn't have 'that same personal side' as that of his successor Steve Smith.
IMAGES from the 1st T20I played between India and Australia in Mohali on Tuesday.
India registered a comfortable seven-wicket victory over the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) in a one-day match of the Emerging Players' Meet, in Brisbane, on Friday.
Images from the third T20 International between Australia and India, at the Sydney Cricket Ground, on Tuesday.
IMAGES from the IPL match played between Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB all-rounder Swapnil Singh, who entered the IPL in the second half and made an immediate impact, opened up on his "emotional" cricketing journey that saw him experience numerous ups and downs and his relationship with star batter Virat Kohli.
KL Rahul and Co would like forget the unsavoury incident and focus on the task ahead.
Australia, who are searching for their maiden T20 title, enter the tournament on the back of a horrific run, losing bilateral series to Bangladesh, West Indies, New Zealand, India and England.
Glenn Maxwell played a scintillating cameo hitting an unbeaten 32 off 14 balls under pressure to power Kings XI Punjab to a six-wicket win over Rising Pune Supergiants.
Two stunning catches by Mitchell Starc gave Royal Challengers Bangalore a great chance of defending a modest total against Kings XI Punjab, and the Australian felt that dismissing destructive batsman Glenn Maxwell with his brilliant effort was very "satisfying".
Delhi Daredevils restricted the lethal Kings XI Punjab batting line-up to 143/8 courtesy a superb performance from their pace bowlers.
It will not be an easy task for a struggling Punjab side to stand up to the challenge thrown by a RCB team
The in-form Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore takes on Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings in a top-of-the-table IPL showdown in Mumbai on Sunday with two points and momentum at stake.
On the other hand, the Royals have managed to win only one of their three fixtures. They lost to Chennai Super Kings in their previous match to slip down to the sixth spot. Sanju Samson and his men will be eyeing a second win.
One of the most notable omissions from India's T20 World Cup squad, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal on Thursday asserted that he will be his wily, old wicket-taking self in the upcoming second leg of IPL in the UAE.
Images from Wednesday's World Cup mach between Australia and Pakistan, at The County Ground, in Taunton.
David Warner led from the front with a destructive cameo as Australia beat Pakistan by two wickets to clinch their first ever Hong Kong Super Sixes cricket trophy.
Australia bowled out South Africa for a below-par 212 despite David Miller's defiant 101 but the chase was not as straightforward as Pat Cummins and his team would have liked.
There have been 24 occasions on which 400 has been passed in ODI cricket and 15 of those have come since the 2011 World Cup.
Kings XI Punjab will look to go all guns blazing against down and out Gujarat Lions in Mohali.
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