Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Rajasthan Royals bizarrely have similar worries to address when they face each other in an IPL 2024 match in Jaipur on Saturday.
The eighth place where RCB are currently on the 10-team table is a fair indication of their troubles, but Rajasthan’s all-win record so far and the resultant second place do not necessarily mirror their turmoil.
An underwhelming top-order is the intertwining factor between them.
The RCB top-order comprising skipper Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green and Rajat Patidar is a storehouse of talent and explosiveness. But none of them have fired either in isolation or in unison, except star batter Virat Kohli, the current Orange Cap holder with 203 runs, who has made two fifties.
Patidar showed a glimpse of his clean shot-making abilities while registering 29 in their 28-run defeat against Lucknow Super Giants, but he needs to do a lot more to prop up the RCB middle-order.
The Bengaluru outfit will hope for a reversal at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, a venue that carries similar traits as RCB’s home – Chinnaswamy Stadium – in terms of a smooth pitch and a blistering outfield adding value to the batters’ shots.
But the aforementioned RCB quartet has company in the Royals’ ranks.
Yashasvi Jaiswal entered this iteration of IPL on the back of some excellent recent efforts, but the left-handed opener has made just 39 runs from three matches, and Jos Buttler offers a similar story.
The England T20 captain is yet to be in his intimidating self, and has managed 35 runs from three outings and his strike-rate across these matches is a mere 85.
The Royals’ batting has largely revolved around captain Sanju Samson (109 runs, one fifty) and the highly-improved Riyan Parag (181 runs, 2 fifties) and at some point, the duo will require solid support from others.
However, Rajasthan have an edge over their opponents in the bowling department.
Pacers Trent Boult and Nandre Burger and veteran leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal have worked up a nice early rhythm and have shared 16 wickets between them.
The out of touch Bengaluru batters might just find it tough to tackle the trio at its home turf.
The lone missing piece in Rajasthan’s bowling, rather surprising at that, is the patchy form of Ravichandran Ashwin, who has taken one wicket from three matches while giving away 8.3 runs per over.
But the seasoned off-spinner can turn that around quickly, and he has a fine record against RCB as well.
RR vs RCB fantasy team
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Sanju Samson (c, wk), Riyan Parag, Glenn Maxwell, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj, Trent Boult, Yash Dayal, Nandre Burger
RR vs RCB pitch report
This season in Jaipur, we have seen 180-plus scores by the tem batting first. One match was in the afternoon and other was an evening fixture. Batting was easier in the evening match, and we could expect the same on Saturday.
RR vs RCB head-to-head overall
RCB and RR have faced each other 30 times in the IPL. RCB have ended up winning 15 matches while RR have 12. 3 matches have ended in a no result.
RR vs RCB head-to-head in Jaipur
Matches played: 8
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 4
Rajasthan Royals: 4
RR vs RCB weather report
It is expected to be around 33 degrees Celsius in Jaipur in the evening and it could drop down to 29 degrees Celsius. There is no chance of rain.
RR vs RCB win prediction
According to Google’s win prediction, RR have a 55 percentage chance of winning the match, compared to RCB’s 45.
