Royals good form to give them win in huge match

The final full week of the Dream11 Indian Premier League ends with a game that will go a long way in to shaping the final standings, as the Kolkata Knight Riders take on the Rajasthan Royals in Dubai. It is last chance saloon for KKR who need a win just to keep their hopes alive of progressing whilst the Royals come in to this on the back of huge win against the Kings XI Punjab last time out.

Have they thrown it away?

After the start they had in this year’s IPL, anything less than a top four spot could easily be seen as a failure and there were many failures along the way as KKR slipped to a six wicket defeat to the already eliminated Chennai Super Kings on Thursday. It was practically a must win game for Eoin Morgan’s men and they would have been confident that they two points were in the bag when CSK needed seven runs to win with two balls left. But Ravi Jadeja had other plans, hitting both deliveries out of the park to see his side over the line in what was a dead rubber for them.

Before then it was Nitish Rana who hit 87 to get KKR up to 172 to make them slight favourites at the half way point. But it was a game to forget for Lockie Ferguson, who went for 54 from his four overs, including 20 from the penultimate over to allow CSK a way back in to the match.

They will be hoping of more of the same from when the teams last met as KKR took home a 37 run win. Shubman Gill top scored with 47 at the top of the order for the Knight Riders.

Keeping themselves in the hunt

They had to win against a team who had won five on the spin, and they won in comfortable fashion chasing down the sizeable 186 they were set by the Kings XI Punjab. Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes shown their class again with the ball, both taking two wickets, with Jofra taking the key wicket of Chris Gayle on 99.

In reply, all of the batsmen contributed but Stokes set the tone with 50 from just 26 balls. Steve Smith (31) and Jos Buttler (22) got the job done and made sure they the Royals still have a chance of qualifying going in to the last round of matches. A real backs to the wall performance from a team that will be heading in to a crucial match, full of confidence.

Match Tip

Despite having Eoin Morgan at the helm, the Royals with an inform Ben Stokes at the top of the order look like a deadly proposition. That’s why I think that Rajasthan will take the two points and keep them in the hunt this year.

I am backing the Rajasthan Royals to have a higher opening partnership than the Kolkata Knight Riders at 1.91 with bet365.

Bet Rajasthan Royals to have a higher opening partnership on Bet365