On Saturday April 24th, the 18th match of this year’s Indian Premier League takes place between the Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders. Our expert tipster has taken a look at what’s on offer and is backing a Rajasthan Royals win.
Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders
April 24th
Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Live on Sky Sports Cricket
Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders Preview
Kolkata Knight Riders had a much better opening day of the year than their opponents this weekend, but they floundered next time out. They beat Sunrisers Hyderabad comfortably on day 3 of the season, and raced into a lead against champions Mumbai Indians on day 5. However, they dropped the ball in a big way against the 2020 title winners, and Eoin Morgan and co snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The Knight Riders’ Nitish Rana will be expected to perform as he has already and bat well, while we’re thinking Sanju Samson after a tremendous opening day will be looking to maintain that form for the Rajasthan Royals.
Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders Odds
The Kolkata Knight Riders are looking like minor favourites in this, the 18th game of the year, coming in at a price of 20/29. While the RR are underdogs at the price of 21/20, we fancy them to get the job done based on what we’ve seen. If you’re enough of a daredevil to back a draw, you’ll get wide odds of 15/1, which we can’t recommend due to the unlikeliness of the result in this sport. There was one instance of a tied game back in 2014, which the Royals won in the super over.
Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders Tips
History favours the Kolkata Knight Riders in this one. They swept this fixture last year and 2018, with a win each in 2019. The sides have played 23 times, with one game left a no result back in 2015. Kolkata’s recent dominance in the game gives them the edge in the head-to-head battle, with 12 wins to Rajasthan’s 10. However, it’s a new season and these teams don’t fully understand each other yet.
Sanju Samson to be home team top batsman – 3/1
After his most recent performance, you’d be crazy not to have a look at the market on Samson being top batsman. We also like him in the man of the match market.
Squads
Rajasthan Royals squad
Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Manan Vohra, Anuj Rawat, Riyan Parag, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Shreyas Gopal, Mayank Markande, Jofra Archer, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, KC Cariappa, Liam Livingstone, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh.
Kolkata Knight Riders Squad
Eoin Morgan (captain), Dinesh Karthik, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Tim Seifert, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Mavi, Lockie Ferguson, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Sandeep Warrier, Prasidh Krishna, Rahul Tripathi, Varun Chakravarthy, Shakib Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Vaibhav Arora, Harbhajan Singh, Karun Nair, Ben Cutting, Venkatesh Iyer and Pawan Negi.
For more betting odds on the 2021 Indian Premier League, head over to the NetBet Cricket page.
*Odds are subject to change.
