Indian Premier League 2021 – RR vs KOL 18th T20 – Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

Fantasy Preview –

Rajasthan almost crossed the line in their tournament opener, beat Delhi Capitals in their second, before being outplayed in their next two. They are evidently missing Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer, who were important cogs in their set-up. Their confidence-crushing, ten-wicket drubbing at the hands of RCB exposed not just their fragile bowling, but also the inconsistency in batting. Skipper Samson since his 119 in the first game, has had scores of 4, 1, and 21; Buttler has failed to create the impact he’s known for as the Royals have continued to lose wickets in the power-play, continuing a trend from last season. To aggravate matters, RR was dealt with a blow on the eve of the game with Archer being ruled out of the entire edition.

KKR have had their moments of brilliance, but need their top and middle orders to strike in unison. If the first two games saw runs from the top order, the middle order stepped up in the last two, but it wasn’t enough to pull through. KKR need runs from Eoin Morgan, who has been dismissed for less than 50 only once in five innings against RR, but has had an ordinary IPL so far. Both sides have punched below their weights with RR on last place, while KKR are on a slightly-better sixth. It will be both RR and KKR’s last game in Mumbai before they move to what could be spin-friendly wickets in Delhi and Ahmedabad. It’s their one last chance to flex their batting muscle on assisting wickets before a new set of challenges await.

Pitch Report –

 A high-scoring wicket as seen in the previous games. Dew comes into play in Mumbai more often than not, but it’s about how teams play to the conditions. While the toss is vital, CSK have shown that defending high totals can be possible. It’s about getting those runs on the board first. Both teams will need their batsmen to fire on a wicket tough for bowlers.

• Bat 1st Winning Chances – 36.17%
• Bat 1st Ave Score – 166
• Highest Score Chased – 228
• Wicket Split – PACE – 71.99 / SPIN – 28.01

Top Performer –

• KOL – N Rana – R-164, Ave – 32.80
• KOL – P Cumins – W-8, Ave – 22.5
• RR – S Samson – R-146, Ave – 29.20
• RR C Sakariya – W-6, Ave – 22.5

Head 2 Head –

• Won by KKR – 12
• Won by RR – 10
• Ever since RR’s return to IPL in 2018, KKR has dominated the fixtures against them, winning six of the seven matches between the two teams. Overall, the sides have played 22 games against each other with KKR, the usurper in recent times.

Player Match-ups Detailed

•  RR’s patience with Vohra at the top must be running out. He’s failed to deliver in the four games too far. They could consider giving Yashasvi Jaiswal a crack at the top instead. Chris Morris seems to have gotten the better of Russell, against whom the burly all-rounder averages only 10.67, getting dismissed three times in 20 balls.
• Sunil Narine impressed in his return to the XI in his first game, although he came in to bat in the middle order. He could keep his spot given his propensity to dismiss Samson. He’s accounted for the RR skipper thrice, giving away just 39 runs in 45 balls. Shivam Mavi has picked up Samson thrice in just 12 balls. If match-ups are anything to go by, Mavi could come in for Nagarkoti who went for a fair number of runs in his first game.

Things To Know –

• Both RR and KKR fared the worst in terms of wickets taken in IPL 2020, with KKR (65) and RR (61) respectively.
• KKR and RR have been the two most expensive bowling units conceding at 9-plus per over while in terms of wickets taken, only PBKS have fared worse.
• In IPL 2020, KKR picked the fewest wickets in Powerplay (13) of which seven wickets came in two games against RR.
• RR lost the most wickets in Powerplay in IPL 2020 and so far have lost the most in IPL 2021 as well. They are also the slowest scoring team in this phase.

Probable Playing XI –

RR – Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal/Manan Vohra, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Shivam Dube, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Shreyas Gopal, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman

KOL – Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti/Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna

BabaCric Expert Dream11 Team

Pre Analyzed Dream11 Team – RR vs KOL

• Note – The team may change any time after the toss, if there are any changes please change immediately or you can join us on our official Telegram channel the link given down after the article.
• The team is based on player points with recent player stats also the team is based on real inner sanctum which helps to predict the team better.
• You can change the team if you have any doubt over it also feel free to comment to us.

Team – 1

C & VC Selection –

• C – J Buttler, S Samson, N Rana, S Gill, A Russel, C Morris
• VC – S Narine, P Cummins, R Tewatia, C Sakariya, P Krishana