Cricket betting tips: Punjab Kings vs Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru

After Wednesday’s Indian Premier League clash between Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings, there will be just 13 group-stage games remaining of this season and of the 10 teams who began the campaign on 22 March, only seven can still finish in the top four and contest the play-offs.

Of those seven, only Gujarat Titans, Mumbai Indians and KKR have previously won an IPL title, so we are going to focus on Punjab Kings, Delhi Capitals, Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bengaluru who will contest games on Thursday and Friday with their supporters starting to dream.

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Punjab Kings will host Delhi Capitals on Thursday knowing that a victory will lift them to the top of the table and put them in pole position to finish in the top four with two further group-stage games remaining.

Delhi will arrive in Dharamsala without a win from any of their last three fixtures and with only two victories from their last seven matches. A season which began with four successive wins is in danger of petering out.

Lucknow are another side who seem to have peaked too early in this campaign and, after losing three in a row, sit in seventh place with only the three eliminated teams below them.

LSG can ill-afford another defeat, which makes the prospect of facing RCB, themselves on a four-game winning streak, far from an enticing one for Rishabh Pant and his men.

Punjab Kings vs Delhi Capitals preview

Although the two sides came into this clash in very different form, only two points separate Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals ahead of Thursday’s clash at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium.

They have long been hard to separate with this fixture the 34th between the teams and Punjab narrowly leading the head to head 17-16.

Shreyas Iyer has led his side to successive wins over Lucknow and Chennai and is now targeting a third in a row for the first time this season. His team ended a run of four back-to-back defeats at the HPCA Stadium in their last game and victory on Wednesday will inch them very close to a first play-off spot since 2014.

As for Delhi, a much-needed win will lift them into the top four but they have a very tough run-in with this one of three games against teams currently above them in the table.

FIRST’s top tip for Punjab Kings vs Delhi Capitals

Arshdeep Singh to be Punjab Kings’ top bowler - 11/5 with Highbet

It has been another excellent IPL season for the left-arm swing bowler who has already taken 16 wickets to add to his returns of 19, 17, 10 and 18 dismissals across his last four campaigns.

Arshdeep has finished as Punjab’s top bowler in four of their 11 games and demolished Lucknow’s impressive top three of Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran to leave them 27/3 after 4.2 overs in Sunday’s game in Dharamsala.

The 26 year old is a threat even when the ball doesn’t move laterally but with humidity levels forecast to be approaching 80% in this match, it would be no surprise to see him mesmerising the Delhi batters.

Lucknow Super Giants vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru preview

It is not just the four defeats from their last five games which have drained the optimism from Lucknow’s supporters, but the fact that their losses have been by 37 runs, 54 runs, eight and five wickets while their solitary victory during this run came against the now-eliminated Rajasthan Royals by just two runs.

A look at the recent history books will give those same Lucknow fans a bit of encouragement as their team have beaten RCB in two of the last three meetings, although it was Mayank Yadav who took the Player of the Match award in the last one and he returned figures of 0/60 in Sunday’s defeat against Punjab.

RCB are flying and although they were pushed close by CSK on Saturday, another win in Lucknow could see them become the first side this season to book their place in the play-offs.

FIRST’s top tip for Lucknow Super Giants vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru

Ayush Badoni to be Lucknow Super Giants’ top batter - 13/2 with Highbet

Nine of Lucknow’s opening ten matches of this campaign saw either Aiden Markram, Mitchell Marsh or Nicholas Pooran hit the most runs for the franchise, but Ayush Badoni will be targeting the title for the third game running on Friday.

He hit 74 from 40 balls against Punjab to make it two half-centuries from his last four innings and the 25-year-old has been remarkably consistent with scores of 22+ in his last eight visits to the middle.

Extra Tips

Prabhsimran Singh to be top batter (Punjab Kings vs Delhi Capitals) - 11/2 with Highbet

The 24 year old can not be far away from international honours after taking his performances to a new level in the 2025 IPL.

Prabhsimran Singh comes into this game as Punjab’s leading run scorer in the tournament, an impressive achievement considering his skipper Shreyas Iyer is averaging 50.62. 

However, the Punjab keeper-batter just keeps on posting crucial scores and has contributed 91, 54 and 83 from his last three innings.

Virat Kohli to be top batter (Lucknow Super Giants vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru) - 3/1 with Highbet

No one has scored more runs than Virat Kohli in the history of the IPL and he has his sights set on another Orange Cap after half-centuries in seven of his 11 innings this season.

Four of those scores of 50+ have come in his last four games and his 2025 IPL average currently stands at 63.12, above even his last two herculean efforts of 61.75 and 53.25.

He made 62 against CSK on Saturday and the 36 year old superstar has finished as the top batter in four games already in this campaign.

All odds are correct at the time of writing.