Rajasthan Royals would be ruing their luck after losing two matches that they could have won had a few things – missed chances, umpiring decisions – turned their way. But that was not to be.
They are an interesting team, albeit a highly inconsistent one, and one which looks very strong on paper. However, it’s rare for all of their star players to perform in a single match.
Joss Butler and Sanju Samson have been the standout performers for Rajasthan Royals. Ben Stokes hasn’t really done much to justify his presence, and neither has Steven Smith – two high profile foreign players.
Smith is making a comeback and he would look at how well David Warner has been doing and would no doubt want to perform better. Ben Stokes looks disinterested and frankly should be dropped.
Chennai Super Kings are of course the most experienced IPL team with many star performers who know how to perform in pressure situations. They have MS Dhoni, the general, who knows what to do and what his best options are at any match situation.
They are without a couple of decent overseas players, David Willey from England, and Lungi Ngidi from South Africa, both out because of an injury. They have been joined by the duo of Scott Kuggeleijn and Mitchell Santner, both very good young cricketers.
As for Rajasthan Royals, we still don’t have a clue why Jaydev Unadkat – who is a medium paced bowler at best – fetches such a high value in every IPL auction. There must be something to it, but we can’t think of any sporting reason. They have Dhawal Kulkarni, who is just as good as Unadkat, if not better, and costs 1/10th as much!
The Teams
Chennai Super Kings: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Ambati Rayudu, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 Dwayne Bravo, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Deepak Chahar, 9 Shardul Thakur, 10 Harbhajan Singh, 11 Imran Tahir
Rajasthan Royals: 1 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Sanju Samson, 4 Steven Smith, 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Rahul Tripathi/Mahipal Lomror, 7 K Gowtham, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Shreyas Gopal, 10 S Midhun, 11 Dhawal Kulkarni
Prediction: Easy win for CSK. We really can’t see any team beating CSK in home conditions. They are just too good. Third defeat in a row for Rajasthan Royals. Are they good enough to make a comeback from here? We don’t think so.
