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.
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!