There is one match in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday and it is the one we’ve been waiting for since the opening round of the campaign as the Kings XI Punjab play host to the Rajasthan Royals up in Mohali, with both sides desperate for the points.
The reverse meeting between these two was extremely controversial with the Mankad incident and all eyes will be on the two teams here to see what impact that moment will have had on this keenly fought encounter.
Kings XI Punjab
It has largely been a good season for the Kings XI Punjab but they have hit the skids in recent times having lost their last two matches. Their latest outing saw them lose to the Royal Challengers Bangalore and whichever way you look at it that is two points lost to the field. They need to pull themselves together and make sure they get back to winning ways as quickly as possible.
The big issue for the Kings XI has been their bowling in recent times, especially their death bowling. They have been carted at the end of the innings and it seems that no matter what combination they use at that stage of the innings, they are unable to stem the flow of runs. With that in mind they could really do with batting second and knowing what the task in hand is.
Rajasthan Royals
If you look purely at the league table then you would think the Rajasthan Royals are having a poor season. That is certainly the case in terms of their results but they have been involved in four matches which could have gone either way and they have come out on the wrong end of all of them, so they are better than their results suggest.
Rajasthan’s batting has been their downfall for much of the season. If their top three don’t do the business there hasn’t been a huge amount to back them up. That is going to have to change if they are going to launch a push for the playoffs because by and large their bowling attack has been effective enough. You feel this is a match they have to win.
Team News
Hardus Viljoen missed out on the defeat to the Royal Challengers Bangalore through illness last time out but if he is fit he could well come in for Andrew Tye, who had another evening to forget in that match. Mujeeb Ur Rahman is another who could come in.
Ben Stokes was left out for the Rajasthan Royals last time due to injury. If he isn’t fit them it might be time for Ashton Turner to come in as he’ll be around when their World Cup players leave. Liam Livingstone would sit out in that case.
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Betting
I’m going to back the Rajasthan Royals in this match. They certainly won’t lack for motivation after the last meeting between these two and although they ended up losing that game, we shouldn’t forget that they were absolutely cruising it until the Mankad incident and then understandably lost their way after that.
Not a huge amount has changed since then. Chris Gayle actually came off in that match for the Kings XI so they don’t have a performance from him to necessarily guarantee a win. I can’t get over how bad the Punjab outfit are at the death of the innings and that could actually see the Royals’ weakness of their middle and lower order not quite so exposed in this one. I’ll take the visitors here.
Tips
Back Rajasthan Royals to beat Kings XI Punjab for a 4/10 stake at 2.20 with Betfred
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