Rajasthan Royals are currently in the top spot in the IPL
Current league leaders Rajasthan Royals will travel to M. Chinnaswamy Stadium to face Royal Challengers Bangalore this Sunday in the 32nd match of this season’s Indian Premier League.
Rajasthan Royals are arguably the most balanced team in this edition of IPL. They have trustable players such as Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, and Shimron Hetmyer in batting while the likes of Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Ravichandran Ashwin can’t be ignored when we talk about bowling.
On the other hand, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s batting line-up is lethal with in-form Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli. While, Glenn Maxwell lost his wicket on the first ball against Punjab Kings, apparently, he’s also in a good form. Conversely, their bowling has been underperforming in recent matches which is a matter of concern for the side.
What have they done so far?
After six matches, Faf du Plessis’ Royal Challengers Bangalore are out of the top four as they’re fixed in the fifth spot. They have won as well as lost three matches but they currently acquire a negative net run rate.
They commenced their campaign against Mumbai Indians with a comfortable win by eight wickets following Virat Kohli (82*) and Faf du Plessis’s (73) heroic batting efforts. However, in the next match, they suffered a throbbing loss against Kolkata Knight Riders by a whopping 81 runs. Shardul Thakur and Rinku Singh caught all the eyes in that match.
Against Lucknow Super Giants, fans saw a last-ball thriller as Harshal Patal failed to defend five runs in the last over in addition to a jocular mankading effort. Wicketkeeper-batsman Nickolas Pooran was awarded the player of the match following his 62-run inning off just 19 deliveries.
Royal Challengers returned to the winning ways after they took down Delhi Capitals in their fourth match by 23 runs with the help of brilliant bowling by Vyshak Vijay Kumar and Mohammed Siraj. However, they again gave away two points after losing against Chennai Super Kings in the next match by 8 runs.
Following great innings from Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis, Bangalore would have won the match if they managed to stay compact. Due to constant dismissals in the last few overs, Royal Challengers failed to chase the target. Their third win came against Punjab Kings in their most recent match where Shikhar Dhawan’s absence haunted the home side and Virat Kohli’s team won the match by 24 runs.
On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals are currently on the top of the league table with 8 points in six matches. Last year’s runner-ups have won four out of their six fixtures this season yet.
Their campaign started against Sunrisers Hyderabad where the top order of the Royals ruled the match in the first inning while in the second inning, Yuzvendra Chahal and Trent Boult’s bowling left batters bamboozled. After winning their first match by 72 runs, Sanju Samson’s side failed to carry on the momentum to the next match as they came up short against Punjab Kings by 5 runs.
Prabhsimran Singh and Shikhar Dhawan’s heroic innings were rightly supported by Nathan Ellis and Arshdeep Singh’s bowling for the win. In the third match, unfortunate Delhi Capitals became Rajasthan’s victim as they lost by 57 runs following Boult’s dreadful pace bowling.
Playing a last-ball thriller against Chennai Super Kings, Sanju Samson’s side secured their third win with the help of Sandeep Sharma’s last over against MS Dhoni. After the 3-run win over Super Kings, Royals travelled to Narendra Modi Stadium to play the replay of last year’s final.
Facing Hardik Pandya’s Gujarat Titans, Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer took the matter into their own hands by scoring half-centuries in order to keep their team alive in the match and eventually winning it by 3 wickets.
However, Rajasthan Royals’ momentum was disturbed in their recent match which was a tabletop fixture against Lucknow Super Giants. The Royals didn’t have a huge total to chase but their batting line-up didn’t stick to the plan and they ended up recording their second loss.
Head to Head Record
Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals have played against each other a total of 28 times. Bangalore has managed to keep an upper hand on the inaugural champions by winning 13 times while Rajasthan isn’t really behind with 12 wins as three of their matches have resulted in no contest.
Last season, Sanju Samson’s side lost their first meeting against Bangalore by 4 wickets. However, they didn’t look back on the defeat as they took down Royal Challengers by 29 runs in their second meeting. Moreover, when the sides crossed paths in the playoffs, the last year’s runner-ups eliminated Bangalore following a 7-wicket win.
Key Players
Faf du Plessis has been performing really well constantly for Royal Challengers Bangalore
Faf du Plessis (Royal Challengers Bangalore): Faf du Plessis has been the run machine for Royal Challengers until now. He’s also the top run scorer in the league currently with 343 runs in six matches with a decent average of 68.60, he’s also the only batsman yet to cross the 300-run mark.
Hence, in every aspect, Faf du Plessis is the most valuable asset for Royal Challengers Bangalore. If he scores, then Bangalore can surely get a winning result against Rajasthan Royals.
Yuzvendra Chahal (Rajasthan Royals): Yuzvendra Chahal’s bowling has played a major role in all four wins of Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League this season.
The leg-spinner has taken 11 wickets this season with an economy of 8.25 and he’s just one wicket behind Royal Challengers’ Mohammed Siraj in the list of most wicket-taking bowlers. Hence, the former RCB bowler might come back to haunt his old team as he holds the calibre of deciding the fate of the match.
Predicted XI
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mahipal Lomror, Harshal Patal, Wanindu Hasaranga, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson ©, Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma
Prediction
With the help of Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli, Royal Challengers Bangalore seems to have a great batting line-up. However, their bowling has been failing to catch up to a similar level of intensity this season.
On the other side, Rajasthan Royals have portrayed themselves as a balanced team with batting and bowling staying compact. If Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson manage to score good runs, Rajasthan can secure two more points because their bowlers have been given decent performances regularly.
