Coming from the back of two defeats, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will be desperate for a win when they play Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Monday (April 18) at the Brabourne Stadium. KKR have never won a game on this venue while RR have two wins and as many defeats from four matches.
For Kolkata, Venkatesh Iyer’s dismal form with the bat has hurt massively. The middle-order also hasn’t fired barring Andre Russell, who is currently KKR’s highest run-scorer with 179 runs. The lack of runs from captain Shreyas Iyer’s bat has also put the lower middle-order under the pump.
48 seconds of Jos bhai and his sweet timing before you go to sleep. 💗#RoyalsFamily | #HallaBol | #RRvKKR | @josbuttler pic.twitter.com/9pcNHTOMwC
— Rajasthan Royals (@rajasthanroyals) April 17, 2022
On the bowling front, while Sunil Narine has managed to weave his magic, Varun Chakravarthy has been pretty flat this season and has gone for plenty of runs. Although Umesh Yadav has been a revelation, he has lacked support from his teammates. The Knight Riders need to fire all guns blazing as a unit if they want to make a move in the ongoing 15th edition of IPL 2022.
Rajasthan have also been carried single-handedly by Jos Buttler in their batting department. RR have lacked steady contributions from their skipper Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag’s performance too has fallen flat. Another area of concern RR will want to ponder upon is the death overs. They have leaked too many runs in the final overs despite Yuzvendra Chahal‘s brilliance in the middle part of the game.
Match Details
Match 30 – Rajasthan Royals (RR) vs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)
Venue: Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai
Date & Time: 18th April at 7:30 PM IST and Local Time
Pitch Report
The wicket has offered assistance to the batters in the first few games and is likely to remain the same. They have maximised the short boundaries, putting on big totals.
Predicted Playing XI
Rajasthan Royals (RR): Devdutt Padikkal, Jos Buttler, Rassie van der Dussen, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shimron Hetmyer, Trent Boult/James Neesham, Riyan Parag, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR): Venkatesh Iyer, Aaron Finch, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer (c), Sheldon Jackson (wk), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Aman Hakim Khan, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy
RR vs KKR – Fantasy Team Predictions
Fantasy Team 1: Sheldon Jackson, Jos Buttler, Shreyas Iyer (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Nitish Rana, Devdutt Padikkal, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal (vc), Trent Boult
Fantasy Team 2: Jos Buttler (c), Shreyas Iyer, Shimron Hetmyer, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell (vc), Pat Cummins, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, Kuldeep Sen
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