IPL 2018: Can Rajasthan Royals take their revenge facing KXIP at home?
Dec 22, 2018 at 5:24 PM
The clock turned very quickly for Punjab, Rajasthan and their fans. We came across both fighting tooth and nail in the before last night contest and once again both set to entertain the audience. But, this time the clash would be more eventful as Ajinkya Rahane would love to take revenge at their home den to counter their previous loss.
Kings XI Punjab eyes to strengthen their place in points table:
The Ashwin-led side has got every right to be complacent but the coaching panel is smart enough to keep their players on the toes. They have got the luxury of more number of matches than any other teams right now and has a great chance to aim for the top 2 finish. The collective performance from batting and bowling departments is the icing on a cake for KXIP.
From the bowling point of view, Kings XI Punjab doesn’t have any concerns as everyone are keeping their hand high whenever Ashwin required a wicket. They got the likes of Mujeeb and Tye who can give them the wickets while Ashwin and Axar Patel are smart enough to control the run-rate in the middle part of the innings. Ashwin is finding himself to bowl in powerplay overs as well.
The middle-order batting is a bit of area to concern for Punjab as their inexperienced batsmen are not giving their performance for the team. However, the management has themselves to blame for it as they never followed the correct middle-order department. They have sent Axar Patel ahead of regular batsmen in the last couple of matches which backfired them. However, Marcus Stoinis is joining the fun to show his mettle for the team.
All in all, they are ready for the game against Rajasthan Royals amidst high roarings from the fans. With Jaipur producing a sporting wicket, once again Punjab bowlers look to Wreck havoc.
Rajasthan Royals – A do or die game to stay alive in the tourney
It is earlier expected that the ban of Australia’ Steven Smith and David Warner would hurt the latter’s team more. But, Hyderabad, fortunately, found their team combinations right while Rajasthan Royals found themselves on the wrong side. The skipper, Ajinkya Rahane himself appeared to be the weak link in the team as he is not finding his timing right with his willow while captaincy wasn’t up to the mark as well.
Ben Stokes has been the failure of the camp so far and needs to fire all his cylinders to make a grand comeback and it’s a high time as well. Coming to the bowling department, it needed a serious repairing by the management to restrict the KXIP franchise that has the likes of Chris Gayle, KL Rahul and other free-flowing batsmen.
Meanwhile, they are still finding it hard for the perfect batting line-up which is being a main area of concern. As Rahane cited in the previous interview, batsmen are finding it tough to acknowledge the best time to hit the ball. He wants his side need to be more aggressive and asked to go for it rather than being stuck in two minds.
The youngster, Krishnappa Gowtham needs to be consistent while Jaydev Unadkat should deliver a man of the match performance. All in all, the home conditions and the crowd might work as a motivation for the team to stay alive in the tourney by outsmarting the Ashwin-led side.
Possible Playing XI:
KXIP: KL Rahul (wk), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Manoj Tiwary, Marcus Stoinis, R Ashwin (c), Axar Patel, Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb ur Rahman.
RR: Ajinkya Rahane (c), D’Arcy Short, Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler (wk), Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, K Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Anureet Singh.
When & Where to watch:
Date & Time – 8th May 2018, 20:00 IST
Venue – Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur
Live telecast – Star Sports Network, Jio and Hotstar Premium customers