IPL 2018 – Match 15 – Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders Preview

April 17, 2018 Dwayne Fernandes Cricket Scoops, Sports Scoops 0

03/05/13 – this date signifies the last time Kolkata Knight Riders beat Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League, which is almost 5 years now. When you look at the squads through the years, one would always say that KKR have possessed a stronger team, but somehow they’ve found it tough to get past Rajasthan. 16 games between the two teams and 9 have gone in RR’s favour. Shocking!

Teams

Kolkata Knight Riders have had a shaky start to their IPL 2018 campaign while Rajasthan Royals have won two in a row after losing their opening game to Sunrisers Hyderabad. Andre Russell, coming back from a 1-year doping ban, has left no stone unturned in ensuring his opponents know how dangerous he can be.


He followed up his 88(36)* with a 12-ball 41 and his message is very clear – “In my arc and I will smash it.” He’s already hit 18 mammoth sixes in this tournament so far, and he’s shown that even 4-5 overs are enough for him to change the game. At the same time, Robin Uthappa & Nitish Rana have shown some clean six-hitting abilities as well. This is looking a dangerous side.

RR v KKR

Let’s look at Rajasthan and how they are set up now. After a pathetic first outing, they put together two wins but they will be mighty worried about the form of their most expensive player – Ben Stokes. His scores so far have been 5, 16 and 27, while he has only managed 1 wicket. However, he seems to be warming up and I remember him taking a while before he started contributing in IPL 2017 as well.

Until then, RR may some issues to battle, including Jaydev Unadkat’s inability to pick wickets so far. He was purchased for INR 11.5 crore at the IPL 2018 auction but has only 2 scalps in 3 games thus far. Another huge issue I see is Rahul Tripathi batting down the order after scoring 391 opening the innings for Pune last year. His talent is being wasted, with scores of 17, 15* and 14* thus far!

Overall

It’s going to be tough for Rajasthan to keep up with the high-paced cricket that Kolkata have been playing in the last couple of games. Apart from batting order problems, RR’s D’Arcy Short has a best score of 11 in three games while Jofra Archer is yet to play a game for them as yet. RR will be competent once these changes are made. Kolkata Knight Riders to win!

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About Dwayne Fernandes 2314 Articles
Indian, 28 years old. Avid cricket fan. Business Management Graduate. Twitter and Instagram - @dwayneeeboy