Royal Challengers vs Kolkata Knight Betting Tips 30/03/2022

In what is a repeat of last year’s IPL Eliminator, Royal Challengers Bangalore take on Kolkata Knight Riders at Dr DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai on March 31 (Wednesday). This will be the sixth fixture of the 2022 Indian Premier League and it will begin at 7:30pm IST.

Teams Status

Royal Challengers Bangalore

The memories of last year’s chastening defeat must still be fresh on the minds of Royal Challengers Bangalore faithful. They face their tormentors again.

Further motivation for a win would be provided by the fact that they’ve already lost their opening game of this season.

Despite posting a mammoth 205-2, RCB could not defend as their bowlers allowed Punjab Kings to track down the target with an over to spare.

The two most expensive bowlers for RCB in the last game were Mohammad Siraj and Akash Deep. Siraj, in particular, leaked a whopping 59 runs in his four overs. A repeat of such displays cannot be afforded in a competition so fierce.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata were the form team of last year’s playoffs and only lost the final because they ran into Chennai Super Kings. Any other side they’d have gobbled up with ease.

They swiftly avenged that defeat of last year’s last game with a dominant win in the first game of this season. The six-wicket win on Saturday was the doing of their bowlers who restricted CSK to just 131-5.

Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine combined to choke the life out of CSK batting. The batters took their time getting to the total but it was never in doubt.

What Do the Sportsbooks Say?

Brand	Royal Challengers Bangalore	Kolkata Knight Riders
	1.73	2.10
	1.75	2.088
	1.66	2.24

Despite KKR demolishing the defending champs on the opening night, they are still the underdogs for this IPL fixture. Parimatch has Kolkata priced at 2.10 and Bangalore at 1.73. Paripesa has Kolkata available for 2.088 and Bangalore for 1.75. Lastly, Sportsbet has Kolkata priced at 2.24 and Bangalore at 1.66.

Tipster’s Angle

Tip: RCB to win @ 1.75

Granted that these teams have had a contrasting side to the new season but we’d still side with the one that lost its first game. What happened to RCB against Punjab Kings was more of an aberration. Their bowling has a few question marks but their batting is as loaded as ever despite there being an AB de Villiers-sized hole. We think RCB will bounce back here. The odds have been sourced from Paripesa.

Tip: Venkatesh Iyer to score more than 22.5 runs @ 1.87

Venkatesh Iyer scored just 16 runs off 16 balls in the win over Chennai before falling prey to Dwayne Bravo. Fortunately for him, RCB’s bowling is a mess and he’s going to get a much easier time in this game. Therefore, we back him here to make the spread. The odds have been sourced from Parimatch.

Conclusion

These two teams have faced each other 29 times. KKR have the edge with 16 wins and to RCB’s 13. This fixture could also use a bit of a course correction as RCB have the far more loaded batting unit and KKR have won a few more than they should have.

Zohaib Ahmed

15:05, 30 Mar 2022

Senior Author

Zohaib Ahmed

Senior Author

15:05, 30 Mar 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.