Rajasthan Royals will lock horns against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the second Qualifier of the ongoing Tata Indian Premier League at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Friday. RR had lost the first qualifier against GT despite posting a par score of 188 runs whereas RCB got the better of LSG in the Eliminator clash.
Death bowling has been RR’s Achilles Heel throughout the season and it came to bite them in the first qualifier. 16 runs were to be defended in the final over but Prasidh Krishna was smashed for a hat-trick of sixes by a well-settled David Miller.
RR had done well to post 188 runs on the board after Jos Buttler got back into form. The RR opener had struggled in the initial phase of his innings but finished on a high. Furthermore, Sanju Samson had played a fine knock of 47 runs in the middle overs. For RR to succeed, they will want Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal to be at their absolute best, which wasn’t the case against GT.
On the other hand, Rajat Patidar scored the fastest century of Tata IPL 2022 as he got to the personal milestone in only 49 balls against LSG. Patidar played a big hand in helping RCB post 207 runs on the board and win by 14 runs. Moreover, Harshal Patel and Josh Hazlewood were right on the money in the death overs for RCB versus LSG and they will look to continue the same against RR.
However, RCB will want their big players like Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, and Glenn Maxwell to fire at all cylinders, which wasn’t the case against LSG.
Match Prediction: With winning impetus on their side and with a better death bowling unit, RCB might start as slight favorites against RR.
Rajasthan Royals Probable Playing XI: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Obed McCoy, Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna.
RCB Probable Playing 11: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Wanindu Hasaranga, Josh Hazlewood, Harshal Patel, Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj.
