Bookmakers did not give Rajasthan Royals (RR) much of a chance to win the 2021 IPL Championship. The Royals have sadly fulfilled those predictions as they have played poorly and currently sit in 8th place at the bottom of the IPL points table.
They have a chance to redeem themselves over the weekend as they take on the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on April 24 in Mumbai. KKR currently sit in 6th place on the IPL points table. If RR beats KKR, they will be able to lift themselves and go to either 5th or 6th place whereas if KKR wins they have a chance to move into 4th place depending on how the rest of the teams fare.
Bet365 has KKR as the slight betting favorites for this game with odds of 1.80 while RR has odds of 2.00. If you would like to bet on this IPL game, you can register at any of the reputed IPL betting sites we have listed below.
RR – Keys To Victory
The Rajasthan Royals are struggling in both the batting and bowling departments. When they have a good performance with the bat, they have a poor performance with the ball and vice-versa. They need to get their act together on April 24 or they are going to find it very difficult to pick themselves up and will effectively eliminate themselves from the playoffs mentally.
The Royals were thumped in their last game against RCB and were defeated by 10 wickets. Sanju Samson has a lot of pressure on his young shoulders as his first outing as Rajasthan Royals captain has not been very impressive.
Samson needs to rally his team together, boost their confidence and take charge. The Royals don’t have a lot of overseas backup talent to fall back on and will have to continue to rely on J Butler and D Miller in the batting department.
Chris Morris was the most expensive purchase for the Royals in the IPL auction and he needs to deliver with the ball. There are a lot of ‘if’ factors at play here but the biggest key for us would be how Sanju Samson responds with his bat and with his leadership skills.
KKR – Keys To Victory
KKR showed a lot of character and fight when they chased down a total of 200 plus against Chennai Super Kings and fell just short. They will be hurting from that close loss and will want to bounce back and get another win under their belt. The Royals don’t have the strongest squad in the IPL and KKR knows that they must make full use of this opportunity and get those 2 points in their win column.
Eoin Morgan knows that KKR could be sitting in the top four teams on the points table if they managed to make the most of their opportunities. His role as captain will be to get his star players like Andre Russell, S Gill and S Narine to be consistent with their performances as that will automatically make KKR a lot harder to beat.
KKR are likely to stick with the same squad going into their game against RR. S Gill has had a rather quiet IPL so far and is due for a big score.
Verdict
We expect the Royals to show more fight than they did against RCB in their last outing. However, we believe that KKR has a more powerful line-up and will be able to get the better of the Royals on April 24. Go ahead and put your money on KKR.
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