After one of the most exciting weekends in franchise cricket history, we go back down to one match on Monday as the bottom two in the table meet in Abu Dhabi when the Chennai Super Kings take on the Rajasthan Royals.
Both these sides go into this match in no lose territory if they want to keep their hopes of pushing in and claiming the last play-off spot realistic. The way the table is someone might get in with seven wins but the net run rate of these two is terrible so it won’t be either of these.
Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings are becoming really annoying to follow right now because they are starting to beat themselves way too much. They were a little unfortunate that Dwayne Bravo twanged his hamstring in the last match which means that he couldn’t bowl the final over of a match they looked to have won against the Delhi Capitals last time out and had to bowl a spinner instead but they continue to send Ravi Jadeja in far too late in the batting innings and keep on paying the price.
The Super Kings are now 3-6 for the season so I don’t think it is pushing the boat out too far to suggest they need to win out if they are going to make it back to the play-offs. That is a tough ask but the injury to Dwayne Bravo could give them the opportunity to bring Imran Tahir in to take advantage of these slowing up pitches. Bravo has only faced six balls in the entire tournament so they don’t need to replace him with a batsman which opens the door for Tahir to make his seasonal bow.
Rajasthan Royals
The Rajasthan Royals looked to be heading to their fourth win of the season over the weekend when they were in what has to be described as a dominant position but then came a blitz that only AB de Villiers is capable of and the next thing they knew they had grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory, leaving them knowing there is every chance they need to win out from here on in if they are going to extend their campaign beyond the regular season.
The big problem for the Rajasthan Royals has been getting their batting line up to fire as one. They made the move to put Robin Uthappa up to open last time out and that worked a treat. It also brought the form of Steve Smith back so if they can continue to bat to that level then they should find themselves winning more matches because they are not going to run into the sort of pyrotechnics that de Villiers hit them with very often.
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Key Men
If the Chennai Super Kings are going to persist on leaving Ravi Jadeja until it is too late in their innings then they need MS Dhoni to come good quickly. Usually throughout his career he has come to the party when the pressure has been on the most so it would be very welcome if he does it again here.
Given that the Chennai middle order appear in be in no form at all if Jofra Archer can take early wickets like he did in the previous match then the Rajasthan Royals could move a lot closer to winning the match very quickly.
Betting
Given the pressure that is on both sides in this match and the slow nature of this pitch in Abu Dhabi I wouldn’t like to predict who will win the game. You’d have to say the Rajasthan Royals are probably in better shape but surely the penny will drop with the Chennai Super Kings eventually and we’ll see the team we all expected to see. If that is the case they would have every chance here but you’d need to see it before you could trust it.
The bet I like in this match is for the Rajasthan Royals to hit the most sixes at 11/10. When I looked at the statistics for sixes and saw that Rajasthan have hit 78 in the tournament to the 54 of Chennai I assumed that Rajasthan had played a good few more games at Sharjah than Chennai. That isn’t actually true. They’ve played one more and only hit six in that match so what that tells me is that Rajasthan are genuinely hitting the most sixes of these two teams and given how out of nick the Chennai middle order is it is easy to see why. In Jos Buttler, Robin Uthappa, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson and Rahul Tewatia the Royals have some big hitters of a cricket ball whereas for Chennai it is only really Faf, Watson and Curran in any sort of nick who hit a long ball. They won’t find smacking Jofra Archer easy so I like Rajasthan to hit the most sixes at this price.
Tips
WON – Back Rajasthan Royals Most 6s for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Betway
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