Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders 18/04/2022| BetNinjas

Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders’ stories so far this season are not too dissimilar. Both have similar kinds of strengths and weaknesses. Their points haul (6) is identical while both are reeling from defeats in their previous games. They clash at Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai on April 18 (Monday) at 7:30pm IST.

Teams Status

Rajasthan Royals:

If Rajasthan Royals have lost three of their five matches so far this season, much of the blame needs to go to their death bowlers, who have looked quite rubbish at times in the final few overs.

They’ve been leaking 12.78 runs in the death overs and averaging just a wicket. On the flip side of the argument, their own death over batters have been absolute beasts as well, with Shimron Hetmyer’s strike rate soaring to an unbelievable 262 when the overs are about to expire.

Rajasthan’s is a spin-oriented bowling attack. In fact, their best two bowlers have been spinners. Yuzvendra Chahal has been on absolute fire this season and already has 12 wickets to his name. And while R Ashwin only has a single wicket to his name, his economy rate has been a suffocating 7.15.

Trent Boult has also been pretty good this season but he missed Rajasthan’s last game. The team hasn’t issued an update on his fitness but he was spotted bowling in a video shared by the franchise.

Kolkata Knight Riders:

As we told you that KKR has similar strengths and weaknesses to Rajasthan, look at this: KKR also find it hard to contain runs in death overs as evident in a run rate of 12.97.

But what they give up, they also get back in death overs, thanks to their own Caribbean import Andre Russell, who smashes the ball at the strike rate of 196.55 when the overs are drying up.

KKR’s best bowler also is a spinner. Sunil Narine has been by far the most stingy bowler this season. His economy rate through the first half a dozen games has been an astonishing 5.0. That’s actually an ODI-level figure in T20 cricket. Wickets wise, Umesh Yadav has been their most useful with 10 scalps to his name.

One major cause of concern for Kolkata has been the poor form of Varun Chakravarthy. Not only has he only picked up four wickets all season, he has proven to be super expensive in almost every outing. Against Rajasthan’s spin experts such as Sanju Samson, he could be set for another difficult night.

What Do the Sportsbooks Say?

Brand	Rajasthan Royals	Kolkata Knight Riders
	1.84	1.96
	1.784	2.17
	1.74	2.10

On the face, these two teams look similarly strong or weak but a deep dive into their stats would tell you that Rajasthan has lesser problems than Kolkata, which is why the former are the favourites for this IPL fixture. Parimatch has Rajasthan priced at 1.84 and Kolkata at 1.96. Paripesa has Rajasthan available for 1.784 and Kolkata for 2.17. Sportsbet has Rajasthan priced at 1.74 and Kolkata at 2.10.

Tipster’s Angle

Tip: Rajasthan Royals to win @ 1.84

Over their last three matches, Rajasthan have not done as well with the bat as they are capable of. Scores of 169, 165 and 155 tell you that they’ve been faltering of late. That said, they still boast superior batting than Kolkata’s and it’s only a matter of time before they catch fire and amass a total in excess of 200. We’re tilting towards Rajasthan here. The odds have been sourced from Parimatch.

Tip: Jos Buttler to score more than 27.5 runs @ 1.87

We don’t like to bet against Jos Buttler in any T20 competition – not when he is already the tournament’s top scorer with a sky high average of 68 runs per innings. In just five games, the man has two half centuries and a ton already. He is as in-form as anyone can be or has been. What’s another 27.5 runs for a man of his class and caliber. The odds for this play have been sourced from Parimatch.

Conclusion

Rajasthan have been one of the underachieving sides in IPL over the years but still their 11-13 head-to-head record against Kolkata is not as bad as it could have been considering their overall record. This is their chance to move towards parity. We think they will.

Zohaib Ahmed

12:28, 18 Apr 2022

Senior Author

Zohaib Ahmed

Senior Author

12:28, 18 Apr 2022

Zohaib Ahmed is a sports journalist whose profession is to report and edit but whose passion is to predict and bet. He’s been in the industry for more than a decade and has worked/written for various bookmakers/tipsters. His expertise is in cricket, football, MMA, boxing and basketball.