We have the first dead rubber of the Indian Premier League on Tuesday when two sides who are already out of contention in the IPL 2025 season meet in Delhi as the Chennai Super Kings host the Rajasthan Royals.
This clearly hasn’t been the campaign that either side would have wanted. Both would have been hoping to challenge at the top end of the table but when they meet on Tuesday they will be playing to avoid bottom spot in the standings.
Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings’ fate was sealed pretty early in this competition. They looked light in firepower right from the start of the campaign and when Ruturaj Gaikwad went down that was pretty much it for them and three wins from 12 outings is a fair reflection of their performances this term. Chennai have always been a team who have relied on their bowling unit being suited by home conditions and their batting firepower to get them over the line away from home but they have had neither this term really.
This looked like an aging squad going into the campaign for the Super Kings and nothing we have seen in the way the season has panned out has done anything to change that perception so you get the impression there will be a lot of work done between this term and next. That does at least give those who are selected for this match something to play for as you wouldn’t think too many of this squad are guaranteed to be retained for next season.
Rajasthan Royals
Given that the problems the Chennai Super Kings have had could be seen coming, you would have to say that the Rajasthan Royals have had the most disappointing season of anyone, one which comes to an end here. So far they have won three of their 13 matches. That doesn’t necessarily tell the full story as they have lost a lot of close games, or matches that they have been in coming into the business stage of them, but ultimately getting over the line is a knack and the Royals have lacked it.
The bowling hasn’t gone to plan often enough for Rajasthan and once Sanju Samson went down their batting had a huge hole left in it. It was probably a batting unit that was a batter light anyway and while Vaibhav Suryavanshi has made a good account of himself, when a side is relying on a 14-year-old to deliver the goods you know the plan has gone awry at some point. The only positive of note for the Royals here is that they can play with something close to some freedom.
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Key Players
Ravindra Jadeja has been one of the few bright spots for the Chennai Super Kings this season. He is probably suited to pitches in Chennai which might mean he remains with the franchise but another top showing here could convince the hierarchy once and for all.
Yashasvi Jaiswal went into the tournament as one of the most feared batters in it but the competition just hasn’t played out that way for him. India have a busy nine months coming up so it would do him no harm to go out with a bang here.
Betting
This isn’t the easiest match in the world to bet on, largely because both teams have been terrible this season and you wouldn’t want to trust either with your money so we are definitely heading towards the side markets for a punt here and the one I like is the player performance for Ravi Jadeja, who like so many performance bets that I have is a 3D cricketer which makes the 38.5 point target that he has been given for this contest.
Jadeja has been batting in the top five for the Super Kings and he has been going along well enough and against this bowling unit he could really fill his boots. He might not need to cover this with the bat though because he has picked up wickets in five of his last six matches. In the reverse meeting between the two he scored 32* and took 1-10 so he had this line covered comfortably. He still fields in the key positions so he is going to be heavily involved for Chennai here and I expect him to get to 39 points through the combination of the three scoring methods.
Tips
Back R.Jadeja’s Performance – Over 38.5 points for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
