RR will take on PBKS in their first home game of the season
The IPL juggernaut continues to roll from one city to another, from one state to another as the league has reached the northeastern part of the country in the state of Assam which will witness home IPL team Rajasthan Royals take on Punjab Kings. Both the teams have made a winning start to their season winning their first games against Sunrisers and Knight Riders respectively.
The men in pink registered a more comfortable win as compared to their opponents who have to fight it out to register a narrow seven-run victory over KKR and that’s what shifts the balance slightly in favor of Rajasthan who was dominant in their match which was evident by the fact that they didn’t allow SRH to come back in the match through their aggressive approach from ball one as top three batters of RR scored fifties which was followed by finishing touches from the bat of Shimron Hetmayer who gave a perfect ending to the innings as the Royals breached the 200 run mark comfortably.
When it came to bowling the bowlers stood up and restricted Hyderabad’s batting lineup to 131-8. It was a complete IPL team effort from Rajasthan as the bowling attack led by Trent Boult who picked up two wickets early in the innings and broke the back of the run chase was well supported by Yuzvendra Chahal who ended up with four wickets ensured that Rajasthan registered a comfortable victory in the end.
Image Courtesy: Times of India
Punjab’s win against KKR was a hard-fought one as the wicket had some help for the bowlers and batting was not that easy but credit must go to Dhawan Rajapaksa and youngster Prabhsimran Singh. The top three batted well to ensure that the IPL team reached a total of 191-5 which proved just enough for the Kings to win as the wicket got better as the match went on and had it not been for the rain PBKS might have lost the match.
IPL debut in Guwahati sets the tone for a thrilling season opener
Talking about today’s match which happens to be the first IPL match in Guwahati. The match promises to be a high scoring one reason being the wicket at Guwahati which has been a belter for batting with good bounce which the batters can trust and hit through the line. The bowlers can also use the bounce of the wicket to their advantage and get some help off the wicket if they are ready to band their back.
Image Courtesy: Times of India
Both teams can make full use of the wicket while batting and bowling as both have firepower in their batting and bowlers who can extract something from the wicket.
If we talk about the Royals, they have an explosive batting lineup consisting of a top three in Jos Butler, Yashaswi Jaiswal, and the captain Sanju Samson that can destroy any bowling lineup in the world. The top three are followed by left-hander Devdutt Padikkal and local boy Riyan Parag who is expected to score big runs at his home ground.
For PBKS the onus of batting will again be on its top three and the fans would love to see the captain Shikhar Dhawan lead from the front after a decent outing in the first match where the left-hander scored 40 runs and gave good support to Rajapaksa who scored a fifty.
