May 27, 2022
After a marvelous win against the Lucknow SuperGiants in the eliminator match RCB is to combat Rajasthan Royals in the upcoming second Qualifier match of TATA IPL 2022. On Eden's pitch, Rajat Patidar's great maiden ton of 112* in 54 balls put Royal Challengers Bangalore in a promising position to eliminate Lucknow from the league. Also, Dinesh Kartik's 37* and Josh Hazelwood's 3/43 further sealed the deal for Faf's team.
It is undeniable that RCB has found the rhythm that they were missing most of the tournament. Nevertheless, KL Rahul attempted to survive the elimination process with a knock of 79 in 58 balls. Deepak Hooda also came in handy with his 45 runs but the ship sank anyway. It's unmistakable that Rahul's recommendation to bowl first after winning the toss was not worthwhile for his team.
Even after a win like yesterday (25th May), by 14 runs, RCB's ticket to the final is not yet confirmed. In Narendra Modi Stadium Sanju's Rajasthan and Faf's RCB will meet to confirm their spot in the finals. Whoever wins tomorrow will meet Gujarat in the TATA IPL final and fight for the title. While Rajasthan is loaded with powerful performers, their last setback against Gujarat Titans might take a ton on their next performance.
For RCB, Virat, Maxwell, and the skipper being out of runs currently can put them also under pressure in the next game. While Maxwell scored only 9, Kohli 25, Faf Du Plessis couldn't score a single run. In the bowling attack besides Hazelwood, other bowlers like Mohammed Siraj, Shahbaz Ahmed, and Hasaranga failed to stop the runs from flowing. Examining Rajasthan's team, they have Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson, and Chahal in form.
The run machine, Buttler, had a knock of 89 in only 56 balls against Gujarat and Sanju contributed 47 out of 26 balls. While the partnership wasn't sufficient to defeat Gujarat, the total runs the Royals put on the board weren't too bad. Against a very much coordinated group like Rajasthan, Bangalore could seem as though they are battling to find their acceleration, however, the confidence boost support from the past victory keeps RCB one stride ahead of Rajasthan.
“I’m really hoping Rajasthan can go all the way in the memory of Shane Warne. It feels like there should be a special energy in that franchise at the moment,” Betway ambassador Kevin Pietersen said.
In Narendra Modi Stadium the pitch can favor the chasing team because of existing dew. Hence the toss winning team will possibly decide to bowl first. If we look at the last six match statistics on that field the chasing team has won three while losing three as well. In any case, taking a peek at the IPL groups at the end of the season, they have chosen to bowl first so we can foresee during the second qualifier it won't be an exception. As far as qualifier 2 is concerned we are predicting that the underdog RCB has a bigger chance of winning than Rajasthan.