Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders Predictions

Rajasthan Team News

There’s already a slight feeling of inevitability in the Rajasthan Royals camp. After a few seasons of finishing rock bottom, they must already be fearing the worst.

On Thursday there was yet another top-order collapse and the only good thing about that is they showed some fight with middle-order batsmen Rahul Tewatia (40) and Shivam Dube (46) playing well to get themselves to what was just about a par total.

But the fact RCB chased their 178 without losing a wicket tells you all you need to know. They’re in real trouble and don’t really have anyone to bring in to make a difference.

Andrew Tye is the only overseas player not to have been given a game so far so he may play here.

Likely XI: Buttler, Vohra, Samson, Dube, Miller, Parag, Tewatia, Morris, Gopal, Sakariya, Tye

Kolkata Team News

If KKR had beaten CSK on Wednesday it would have been down to a real smash-and-grab job by Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik, and finally Pat Cummins.

Between the three of them, they dragged KKR out of an almost impossible position to one where they came close to winning the match.

But three fine knocks from lower order batsmen can’t disguise the fact that the Knight Riders conceded too many and had a batting collapse in the chase. It shouldn’t have been those three trying to do something remarkable because the top order should have kept them in the game.

Sunil Narine played instead of Shakib Al-Hasan last time and will probably keep his place unless they decide to bring in Lockie Ferguson as a raw pace option. They might as well try something new.

Likely XI: Gill, Rana, Tripathi, Morgan, Karthik, Narine, Russell, Cummins, Nagarkoti, Chakravarthy, Krishna

KKR to Hit Most Sixes

Recommended Bet: KKR to hot the most sixes @  2.05 with 10CRIC

KKR hit 14 sixes against CSK alone. With those powerful batsmen we’ve mentioned often preferring to take risks and go for big sixes than accumulating runs, you’re going to get plenty of sixes when Kolkata are in action.

As for Rajasthan, they’ve lost one of their big six-hitters in Ben Stokes whereas the other two, Jos Buttler and David Miller, look badly out of touch. So it’s only really Samson who has been clearing the boundary.

Go with KKR in a market where they should be strong favourites.

Today’s RR v KKR Hot Bet

Recommended Bet: Andre Russell to be man-of-the-match  @ 8.5 with 10CRIC

Andre Russell has an incredible ability to take wickets out of nowhere and last time out reminded us of what he can do with the bat.

KKR may consider batting him a bit higher here and give him more balls to face. He’s just one of those players who’s always in the game because he’s a proper all-rounder who can do the lot.

He’s taken seven wickets in four games so far and though that 54 was his only proper score so far, you have a feeling he may just kick on after that.

Given we fancy KKR to win and you can see why we think Russell can be very much the main man.