Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) will meet at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala. RR is standing at 6th and PBKS is standing at 8th in the points table.
Both of them having 12 points in 13 matches and the team who will win might have little advantage for the playoffs and the team who will lose will get eliminated. Not only this the team who won will have to depend on other results also.
PC: Google
Rajasthan might be looking at how they started the season and how it went at the end. They were one of the strong contenders for the playoffs from the beginning but in the 2nd half of the season they only won 2 out of 8 matches and it cost them at this position. Their last match was against RCB, in which they lost the match by a whooping margin of 112 runs.
They do have a solid opening pair of Jos Butler and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Yashasvi is looking in top form this season and scored 575 runs with an impressive strike rate of 166.18. Jos Butler started the season with some great knocks but later on he was seen struggling with the bat and got out cheaply. He was a little inconsistent in the later half of the tournament.
Sanju Samson also shares the same form like Butler, he too started too pretty well but after 4-5 matches he failed to score much. And if he gets settled down the pitch he is unable to convert it to a big one. Joe Root was finally seen batting but he couldn’t score much and got out cheaply. Devdutt Padikkal also struggled in batting and couldn’t score much.
Shimron Hetmyer scored 35 runs in 19 balls against RCB but he couldn’t get any support from the other end. He also was not seen in consistency and he can’t provide much in the death overs. Dhruv Jurel in his initial matches provided some healthy runs in the death but still he couldn’t get much chance to show his class of batting.
RR bowling department shows some healthy fighting in the wicket department. Yuzvendra Chahal took 21 wickets in the tournament and once again back to back two seasons he is the leading wicket for his team. R Ashwin took 14 wickets till now in the season and he also provided good economic spells. Trent Boult and Sandeep Sharma provided crucial breakthroughs in the between the overs.
PC: Google
A roller coaster journey for Punjab. When they didn’t have proper playing 11 due to injury or unavailability, they were winning but after their proper lineup came they became inconsistent with their performance. In the last match against DC, they gave the last over to Harpreet Brar who conceded more than 20 runs. While chasing, they were somehow looking close thanks to Livingstone but they couldn’t get over the pillar.
Shikhar Dhawan got out in a golden duck against DC. He is still the leading scorer from the side and made 356 runs till now. Prabhsimran Singh who scored a century against DC, provided some healthy knocks but not with consistency. Atharva Taide got a chance in the last match and also scored a half century but still he batted little slow due to which he had to retire out.
Liam Livingstone shows his destruction in his 94 runs innings which takes only 48 balls. At that time when he was there, PBKS still had a high hope to chase it down but eventually he got out in the last ball and Punjab got defeated by DC by 15 runs. Jitesh Sharma showed some great knocks in the death overs. Sam Curran this season did not go well and he couldn’t provide much in batting and bowling also.
Punjab didn’t do well in the bowling department. Arshdeep Singh took 16 wickets till now. He started the season with some great spells but in the last 4-5 matches he was looking totally touch of touch and also conceding many runs. Nathan Ellis‘ performance goes up and down this season. He took 12 wickets in his pocket. Kagiso Rabada who joined the team later couldn’t provide many wickets as was expected by the team. Rahul Chahar also failed to create problems for the batters. Sam Curran also gets disappointed in this department.
CLASHES: RR vs PBKS
Matches- 25
| RR | PBKS | |
| WON | 14 | 11 |
| HIGHEST SCORE | 226 | 223 |
| LOWEST SCORE | 112 | 124 |
Pitch Analysis:
Match will be played at Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamsala. We have already witnessed a high scoring match on Wednesday. Again a high voltage match is expected and the team will prefer to chase here.
Probable playing 11 for RR:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Butler, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Joe Root, Devdutt Padikkal, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Probable playing 11 for PBKS:
Shikhar Dhawan ©, Prabhsimran Singh, Atharva Taide, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Sam Curran, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Kagiso Rabada.
Predicted best 11 for the match:
Jos Butler, Sanju Samson, Shikhar Dhawan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis.