IPL 2022: Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders, two teams tied at 6 points and separated only by the difference in their net run rate, will meet each other on Monday evening at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai.
Sanju Samson’s team has won 3 of their 5 matches and will like to consolidate their position further in the top four. They will have to, though, put up a better bowling and batting performance than they did versus Gujarat Titans in their latest loss.
Shreyas Iyer’s side is coming off two consecutive losses and would want to break this rut after having won three of their first four matches. Both their recent losses have been by margins: 44 runs vs DC and 7 wickets vs SRH.
Venue: Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai
Brabourne has been a high-scoring venue this season. Expect fireworks from two sides that boast a number of powerful and clean strikers of the ball. Since it’s a night game, expect dew to make its presence felt, and that will mean difficulties for the spinners will be more than it would be in a day match.
𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕, #𝑹𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍𝒔𝑭𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒚
#HallaBol | #RRvKKR pic.twitter.com/zl3tyoLs8g
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) April 18, 2022
Rajasthan Royals
Spearhead seamer Trent Boult missed the last game for RR due to a niggle and is likely to slot back in the line-up replacing James Neesham. RR may also ponder upon dropping Rassie van der Dussen who has managed scores of 4 and 6. Karun Nair, Yasahvi Jaiswal, and Daryl Mitchell are their options to replace the South African.
RR predicted XI: Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Rassie van der Dussen, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Riyan Parag, James Neesham/Trent Boult, Kuldeep Sen, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal
𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗞 𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗗, 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬 𝗛𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗘𝗥!
@y_umesh #AmanKhan #KKRHaiTaiyaar #IPL2022 pic.twitter.com/CN3ez4nans
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) April 17, 2022
Kolkata Knight Riders
Although Pat Cummins offers batting depth, he’s been really poor with the ball: 3 wickets in 3 matches while leaking at an economy of 11.83. KKR could get back Sam Billings for Sheldon Jackson and Tim Southee, who’d offer better control of the run flow, for Cummins.
KKR predicted XI: Aaron Finch, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sheldon Jackson/Sam Billings (wk), Pat Cummins/Tim Southee, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav, Aman Hakim Khan, Varun Chakravarthy