We are down to knockout cricket at the Indian Premier League on Wednesday as the IPL 2024 Eliminator takes place in Ahmedabad when the Rajasthan Royals go up against the Royal Challengers Bangalore with the season on the line for both.
Rajasthan go into this match having finished higher in the table but they limped home in the regular season whereas Bangalore absolutely flew home and if form is the deciding factor here this could be one-way traffic.
Rajasthan Royals
The Rajasthan Royals will know that generally what has gone before counts for nothing now but they could have done without their last match being rained out because even had they lost it, they would have had the chance for some key players to find some form. That wasn’t the case so they are now relying on the fact that it is do or die to bring the best out of their key men. The problem is that they have lost their best batter and that never helps.
It means that the Royals, who were in the top two until the final day of the regular season, head into this knockout clash off the back of four successive defeats. What makes those defeats worse is their batting has let them down at some points and their bowling at others so it isn’t like they only need to fix one area of their game. We know from the first nine matches this season that the Royals are a good side but it has been a while since we have seen them at their best.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
The Royal Challengers Bangalore have gone about their season in completely the opposite fashion to the Rajasthan Royals. They won one of their opening eight matches and knew at that stage that they were going to have to win out and get some luck on their side if they were to extend their season. Incredibly, that is exactly what they did and with rain impacting one or two sides and a couple of heavy defeats for others at the wrong time, the Royal Challengers snuck into fourth spot right at the death.
They go into this match having won their last six matches with the big caveat in all of them being that their batting has come to the party. In a high scoring competition they were never going to get anywhere if they didn’t get their batting right but in this six game winning burst they have scored 200+ four times, would have got it again but for reaching their target and made 187 in the other. That is giving their bowlers a little more freedom to deliver and it has worked well for them.
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Key Players
Generally when Sanju Samson performs for this Rajasthan Royals side they go well. With the season on the line if ever there was a time for the Royals’ skipper to come to the party in a big way it is now. They need a substantial innings from him.
Virat Kohli is the leading run scorer in the competition by a distance and the Royal Challengers could do with their talisman anchoring the innings here and allowing the bigger hitters to pile the pressure onto the Rajasthan Royals.
Betting
While I think that the Rajasthan Royals are the better team of the two here there is no avoiding the respective form lines of the two sides and that makes me think that Royal Challengers Bangalore will win this match. Knockout cricket is a different beast to the league phase but whereas this will be the first time Rajasthan have encountered a do or die match, Bangalore have spent the best part of the last month doing it, winning their last six when losing would have ended their season.
Rajasthan won the previous meeting between these two sides but while Virat Kohli scored a century in that match, it was the slowest IPL ton and he has clicked into gear since then and the rest of the Bangalore batting has come to the party. As well as the form lines, the other thing that can’t be ignored is the absence of Jos Buttler, the best batter in the Rajasthan line up. If there is a positive for Rajasthan it is that the Kolkata spinners went well here on Tuesday and they have a couple of top ones themselves but I don’t think that will be enough. I think the Bangalore train rolls on one more stop here.
Tips
Back Royal Challengers Bangalore to beat Rajasthan Royals for a 3/10 stake at 1.75 with Betway
