Two inconsistent sides, Rajasthan and Kolkata will lock horns in Saturday’s Indian T20 League encounter in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. Both teams have suffered three defeats from their first four games.
Match Timings: April 24, 7:30 PM IST
Team Preview
Rajasthan and Kolkata’s story in 2021 is pretty disappointing. Both sides missed out the playoffs last season and again, they’re on the same route. Kolkata will play their second game in Mumbai and Rajasthan will end their Mumbai leg with this game. Kolkata’s fightback was fascinating but early damage did the final work. They conceded 200 plus total for the second time this season and it showed their poor bowling effort. While chasing, they lost their 5 wickets in the powerplay which was another failure. Pat Cummins and Andre Russell tried to fill it but they missed out great chance.
Kolkata’s top-order is not delivering except for Nitish Rana. The middle-order is struggling and they’re repeating 2020’s performance. Narine was included in the last game but it was a foolish idea. Russell got runs which is a positive sign. The last match’s fightback can boost Kolkata. Morgan’s troops have the caliber to pull off any score in Indian T20 League but they’re missing out the right execution. We find an individual performance that is not enough for a win.
Meanwhile, Rajasthan’s story is similar to Kolkata and their performance in the last two games was disappointing. They didn’t even lose the game but they were thrashed by the opposition. They got a fine opportunity to chase against Chennai but batting let them down. In the previous game, the middle-order batted very well to get 177 after a dull start from the top-order but the bowling unit let them down. The collective effort is missing from this team. The only win that came against Delhi was Chris Morris’ cameo. It means, they didn’t offer a quality team performance in any game this season. Manan Vohra failed for the 4th time and management has to find his replacement with Jaiswal or Anuj Rawat.
Dube and Parag got runs, followed by Tewatia’s blistering cameo. Miller was promoted but Siraj trapped him with a fine yorker. Buttler also requires a big knock. Samson’s consistency is a big concern. He cannot perform like this where he scores one or two good knocks in the whole season. The Bowling unit is also a concern after the previous match. Bangalore chased down 178 without losing a wicket. Gopal’s inclusion was out of the mind when Unadkat impressed with the new ball. Rajasthan has to figure out their team combination and they have to execute their plans as per Sanga. If they lose one more, the playoff qualification will be in danger now.
Pitch Report
Mumbai’s track is ideally a batting paradise. New ball might create a difference but later, it would be a flat track to get runs. Chasing would be a great idea after winning the toss.
Possible XI
Rajasthan
Jos Buttler, Anuj Rawat, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Shivam Dube, David Miller, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Jaydev Unadkat, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman
Kolkata
Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Sunil Narine, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
Key Players
Rajasthan
Jos Buttler
Hard-hitter and might be a top-scorer for Rajasthan
David Miller
Current form is good, can play sheet-anchor in middle-overs
Kolkata
Nitish Rana
Top-scorer for Kolkata this season
Andre Russell
Got his form back, effective with the ball in death-overs
