The Indian Premier League is back with one match which comes from Jaipur on Thursday as the Rajasthan Royals continue their IPL 2024 campaign when they welcome the Delhi Capitals for a key battle for both teams.
Rajasthan got themselves off to a convincing enough winning start to their season while the Capitals were beaten a little too tamely for comfort so it will be interesting to see if those trends continue or the form gets reversed.
Rajasthan Royals
The Rajasthan Royals went into this season motivated to do better than last term where they missed out on the finals by net run rate having made it all the way to the title game in the previous campaign. There were one or two question marks over them but they started to answer them in their opening match when they saw off the Lucknow Super Giants and the good thing for them is you suspect there is more to come from them.
Jos Buttler wasn’t exactly shackled in that match but he only scored 11 and Shimron Hetmyer made just five so there is more to come from that pair. The positive for the Royals is that they have a good balance throughout their side and they have a couple of overseas bowlers who looked like they are ready to get stuck in during that first game. With some natural improvement from those who hadn’t played for a while, Rajasthan look in good shape.
Delhi Capitals
The Delhi Capitals came into the tournament with expectations quite low. They have been a team in decline for a while and you sense there is going to need a serious improvement quickly or a dramatic rethink in how they do things. The positive going into the campaign was that Rishabh Pant was back and him being captain certainly helps but even with an Indian captain they looked unbalanced and Pant was always going to need a couple of competitive run outs before he is anything like he was before his accident.
That makes the fact that they looked unbalanced even more obvious and that isn’t good. Generally the better sides in this competition have an Indian international bowler or a gun overseas bowler. The good thing is that they have got the latter with Anrich Nortje now in Delhi and looking like he is fit and available. His inclusion though is going to need a reshuffle within the overseas ranks, which isn’t ideal after one game. He will need some support by the home bowlers too.
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Key Players
Sanju Samson reminded us all of why he is so highly thought of in the opening match when he clubbed an unbeaten 82 from just 52 balls. He has already announced himself in the mix for the T20 World Cup and another big knock here would do those claims no harm.
If the Delhi Capitals are to achieve anything this season then you sense that Mitchell Marsh is going to really have to deliver with the bat and the ball, especially the bat because him opening just completely unbalances everything.
Betting
The pitch in Jaipur on Sunday yielded plenty of runs but it looked a bit two-paced and with the Delhi Capitals having an unbalanced and light batting unit I wonder if we will finally get a low scoring game in the tournament here. If the pitch doesn’t play any better, especially against the spinners, then the one thing these two sides do have is a pair of spin twins who are generally economical and wicket takers. The other thing these sides have is overseas batters from England, West Indies and Australia, who aren’t renowned for playing spin well.
We have a line of 346.5 runs for this one and given that a decent Lucknow batting unit only scored 173 against the Royals and that was with Nicholas Pooran’s power getting them near that total, then I think this line might well be too high. Delhi have Anrich Nortje here as well which should pep up their bowling attack while Rajasthan have a couple of overseas new ball bowlers to get into the Delhi line up. This feels like a line which is a little bit too high even if Rajasthan go off in the first innings.
Tips
Back Under 346.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.80 with Bet365
