(Cricket news) The Rajasthan Royals have ticked all boxes this season as they have convincingly won their first two matches, on the other hand Royal Challengers Bangalore will look to take the confidence after their victory over KKR in the last match. Rajasthan Royals have turned it on already this IPL, winning two matches and posting mammoth scores of 193 and 210.
Last year RR finished second from bottom with just five wins from 14 matches but this year they just look like a completely different team, having fixed their gloring holes in the squad. Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson have hit a total of 16 sixes and they also have the likes of Devdutt Padikkal and Shimron Hetmyer who are contributing heavily with the bat as they can notch up big hits without spending too much time in the middle. While other teams have taken a pragmatic approach in the middle overs, Royals have scored at 10.07 runs per over in this phase, the highest for any team in IPL 2022. The biggest storyline will be Chahal facing his old team as he will hold the key to make breakthroughs in the slog overs. Both Trent Boult and Prasidh Krishna will also play a crucial role in the powerplay and mainly stop the likes of Faf and Virat to settle in.
RCB will be without Glenn Maxwell, who will be available for selection from 9th April but will have the Australian quicks Jason Behrendorff and Josh Hazlewood available for selection. If RCB are to put on a big total or even chase a big score then Virat Kohli needs to be in form, as he has an exceptional record against Prasidh and Boult and his strike rate jumps to 140 or above against these pacers. Kohli has the edge over Ashwin as well, as he has gotten out to Ashwin only once in 20 innings and averages 162 against the offspinner and will be looking to dominate again. Hasaranga had a good start to the season with five wickets, but the key battle will be against the in-form Sanju Samson as has troubled him in the past, dismissing him thrice in four T20s in the span of 11 balls. Butler also has little success against Hasaranga, he is yet to hit a boundary in the 23 balls that he has faced from him in the T20s.
Pitch and weather report: The three games played at the Wankhede have been won by the teams chasing. There has been a lot of assistance for the pacers with Umesh Yadav (twice) and Mohammed Shami being certain examples. Any captain winning the toss will likely bowl first as the dew factor plays a vital role in the second innings. The temperature is going to hover around 30 degrees with no chance of rain.
Interesting facts:
- Faf du Plessis has hit 30 sixes since IPL 2021 which is the second most since last year
- Hetmyer has a strike rate of 248.14 in this years IPL,
- Chahal has picked up 23 wickets in 17 matches since IPL 2021
- Rajasthan Royals have hit 58 boundaries and 25 sixes in the two matches they have played
- Harshal Patel (69) needs four more wickets to become the second highest wicket taker for Royal Challengers Bangalore
Also read: KL Rahul, Deepak Hooda and Avesh Khan lead LSG to victory over SRH
Probable XI for RR:
1 Jos Buttler, 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Sanju Samson (capt, wk), 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Navdeep Saini, 9 Trent Boult, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Probable XI for RCB:
1 Faf du Plessis (capt), 2 Anuj Rawat, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 5 Sherfane Rutherford, 6 Shahbaz Ahmed, 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 David Willey, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Akash Deep
