The Indian Premier League continues on Saturday as one more match takes place in the IPL 2024 season as the league leaders Rajasthan Royals head on their travels to take on the Punjab Kings in a heavy hitting contest.
The Royals suffered their first defeat of the season last time out but have been the standard setters so far this term, while the Punjab Kings have been a little more up and down and that is reflected in their lower league position.
Punjab Kings
The Punjab Kings head into this contest with two wins from their five matches but when you consider that they won their opening game it is fair to say that they haven’t made the most of their positive start. They have slid down the table in recent times and could do with a win here to latch on to the growing number of sides on six points and ensure they are in touch with the pack when we head into the second half of the regular campaign.
The issue that the Kings have had so far has been their bowling. The only time they have conceded less than 175 was in that first match against the Delhi Capitals, a side who were always going to come on for the run. That is a surprise because they have plenty of bowling talent in their ranks. To be fair, their batters have fought hard to make up the slack and Punjab have lost a couple of close games. The batting looks to be going well and it would be useful of the bowlers come to the party to reward them for their efforts. While they wait for that to happen, you sense the Kings will need to chase to be successful.
Rajasthan Royals
The Rajasthan Royals won their opening four matches this season but they had their wings clipped last time out when the Gujarat Titans launched a late assault to get themselves home. That might just have acted to sharpen up the minds of the Royals players but they won’t want to lose successive matches because they will be only too aware that they have already played four of their seven home games so the second half of their season is likely to be tougher than the first half with that in mind.
Rajasthan played around a little with their bowlers in that defeat to the Titans. Some of that was down to injury but given the way he has bowled so far in the competition it was a surprise that Trent Boult only bowled two overs and that is something to keep an eye on. The Royals have a deep batting unit though and one which can produce fireworks at any given moment, especially if Yashasvi Jaiswal comes to the party anytime soon.
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Key Players
We saw shades of what Sikandar Raza can do in the previous game for the Punjab Kings and now would be a very good time for the Zimbabwean to really come to the party with the bat and the ball with Liam Livingstone out injured.
Sanju Samson has just looked a class above so far in this competition and the Rajasthan Royals skipper will be looking to lead by example here and get his side back to winning ways with a solid innings in the middle order.
Betting
This feels like a bit of a trappy match to me because Rajasthan Royals are clearly a better side at home than they are on their travels and they have one or two injuries to bowlers which could be significant. The other reason why this is a tricky game to call is because the pitch has been pretty good here so far so you would imagine the team who is chasing will have a bit more of an edge and we won’t know who that is until it is too late for this preview.
One bet which could well be worth taking is the player performance of Ravichandran Ashwin where the line looks very low at 20.5. I accept he hasn’t had the best start to his season with the ball with just the one wicket in five matches but the Punjab Kings match up better to him. Ashwin has a good record against Shikhar Dhawan in this format of the game and then there are left-handers in the form of Sam Curran as well. I think Ashwin will have a better game with the ball here but he has already covered this target with the bat this term too and when you add in the catching potential a 20.5 line looks a little too low to me.
Tips
Back R.Ashwin’s Performance – Over 20.5 points for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
