The second part of the double header in the Indian Premier League on Saturday sees the Rajasthan Royals looking to keep their IPL 2021 campaign alive when they go up against the table toppers Chennai Super Kings in Abu Dhabi.
The Super Kings have already qualified for the playoffs once again and with their superior net run rate are probably only one more win from securing a top two finish which would give them a couple of bites of the cherry to make the final. The Royals probably need to win out from here if they are to extend their season.
Rajasthan Royals
The Rajasthan Royals have been pretty average since the tournament landed in the UAE. They won their opening match but have lost the three they have played since. They should have lost the match they won too as the Punjab Kings collapsed at the finish line against them. It might be that their worst performance and most damaging defeat came in their last match against the Royal Challengers Bangalore where they were cruising after 12 overs of their batting innings, only to completely collapse in a heap and lose tamely.
It goes without saying that they need three complete performances from here on in if they are going to make it through to the playoffs. That has to start with someone other than Sanju Samson carrying the innings. It also needs someone at the back end of the batting effort to be counted and push the total to a significant one. Even then though their bowlers haven’t really come up trumps, although and side missing Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer is going to struggle.
Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings deserve tremendous respect for the turnaround from last season to this one. They were propping up the table for almost all of last season but they have been riding high at the top end of proceedings this term. They have really enjoyed themselves since the event touched down in the UAE. They have played four matches since the restart and they have won them all. Three of those wins were by pretty comfortable margins too.
It was suggested that experience was a problem last season but many of those players have been picked again and this time they are delivering the goods. When you consider Sam Curran, Mitchell Santner, Lundi Ngidi and Imran Tahir were some of the players who missed the last game, the Super Kings have tremendous depth when they want to call on it. That isn’t expected to be here though, with the immediate priority to secure a place in the top two come the end of the season.
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Key Men
Chennai Super Kings often set matches up by taking early wickets so if Evin Lewis can counter that then it might go some way to getting the upper hand for the Rajasthan Royals. He showed decent form in the previous game and needs to build on that.
Dwayne Bravo has been in sensational form with the ball both since this tournament restarted and in the CPL which preceded it. He was also excellent with the bat in the Caribbean as well so he shapes up as a potentially key player for the Super Kings.
Betting
It is hard to see anything but a Chennai Super Kings win here and I would expect it to be a fairly comfortable one as well. The biggest reason why I think that is because the Rajasthan Royals’ bowling attack is really struggling at the minute. They have picked up just 16 wickets in their four matches in the UAE and if you don’t get stuck into this Chennai unit early you are asking for trouble because Faf du Plessis and Ruturaj Gaikwad are in the form to punish a team.
The other reason not to like the Rajasthan Royals here comes in the fact that they just don’t have enough players in form at the minute and they are really struggling to finish their batting innings off. Dwayne Bravo isn’t the easiest man to get after at the end of an innings either. Chennai won the reverse meeting between these two by 45 runs and whether they are batting first or second I expect another high margin victory for the yellow submarine.
Tips
Back Chennai Super Kings (-2.5wickets/6.5runs) to beat Rajasthan Royals for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
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