Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Punjab Kings predictions: RCB's wait to finally end

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- RCB have won five of their last six matches with the Punjab Kings
- Josh Hazlewood has taken 21 wickets in this year's IPL
- Recommended bet: Royal Challengers Bengaluru to win
There will be a new name on the IPL trophy with one of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Punjab Kings set to be crowned champions for the first time at the 18th time of asking.
The pair finished first and second in the regular-season standings level on 19 points, but RCB were a class apart when they met earlier in the play-offs, swatting the Kings aside in a ruthless eight-wicket rout.
Team news
Royal Challengers Bengaluru will check on the fitness of big-hitting Australian all-rounder Tim David, who has missed their last two matches.
England international Liam Livingstone has deputised in his absence and should keep his place if David is unable to return.
Punjab lost experienced Australian Glenn Maxwell to injury earlier in the season and all-rounder Marco Jansen is unavailable after joining up with South Africa ahead of next week's World Test Championship final at Lord's.
The stats
Royal Challengers Bengaluru have won five of their last six matches against the Punjab Kings, including in Thursday's Qualifier 1.
RCB are appearing in their third final and first since 2016 while this year's decider will be the Kings' first in 12 years and only the second in their history.
Bengaluru's Virat Kohli has scored 614 runs in this year's IPL, passing fifty in eight of his 14 matches.
Punjab skipper Shreyas Iyer is the Kings' leading runscorer with 603 runs, but he has scored just 15 runs in three innings against RCB.
Prediction
Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the Punjab Kings have waited 18 years to get their hands on the IPL trophy and one will finally realise their dreams in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
The pair were dead level on 19 points after the regular season, winning one game apiece against the other, but it is hard to get away from the manner in which RCB demolished the Kings in the first game of the play-offs.
Led by metronomic Australia quick bowler Josh Hazlewood, Bengaluru bowled Punjab out for only 101 and then took just 10 overs to reach their target for the loss of only two wickets.
That was RCB's fifth win in their last six meetings with the Kings and it will be difficult for Shreyas Iyer's Punjab to break that dominance if Bengaluru are in the same mood.
Some of the best T20 players around, such as Kevin Pietersen, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers, have played for RCB down the years, but few deserve an IPL title as much as India great Virat Kohli, who has been with the franchise from the start and has won almost everything else in the game.
Tuesday's final could finally be Kohli's crowning glory.