IPL 2018, Match 40, RR vs KXIP, Match Prediction: Who will win the match today, Rajasthan Royals or Kings XI Punjab?

It’s only yesterday that the Kings XI Punjab and the Rajasthan Royals took the field at the Holkar Stadium and the former proved to be a better team on the night as they secured a comprehensive 6-wicket win and pushed the latter into a do or die situation going ahead in the tournament.

The equation is simple for Rajasthan from here on. They have 5 games in hand and they have to win all to stay alive. While for that to happen, they surely have to raise the level of their performance, they also have to get their decision-making right as that’s where they are erring massively.

Punjab, on the other hand, effectively require only 2 victories for a playoff berth, but the kind of position they are in, they won’t be satisfied with just a top 4 finish and will rather aim to end among the top 2 for the luxury that’s available to the top 2 teams in the playoffs.

Pitch and Conditions

The Sawai Man Singh pitch won’t be too different from the one at the Holkar Stadium in terms of its nature. It will be fairly good for stroke-play. A few balls will hold up and the spinners might get it to grip a fraction, but it will overall be a batting beauty.

However, the difference here is the size of the ground. The boundaries are bigger in comparison to Holkar and the shots will have to be timed from the centre of the willow to travel over the fence, the mishits won’t carry.

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Playing Combination

Rajasthan Royals

Probable Changes – D’Arcy Short and Anureet Singh out, Stuart Binny and Ben Laughlin in

Rajasthan desperately needs to add another reliable death bowling resource to their arsenal to go with Jofra Archer and Ben Laughlin is the ideal man. The Aussie doesn’t quite have the same pace as Jofra and he doesn’t bowl the hard lengths, but his strength is his variations and he has got fantastic control over it.

If Laughlin plays, D’Arcy Short automatically goes out as there won’t be any overseas slot available. In Short’s absence, Ajinkya Rahane will open the innings, while Rahul Tripathi will move up the order to no. 4.

The vacancy created at no. 6 due to Tripathi’s promotion to 4 might be filled by Stuart Binny who is capable of giving the ball a bit of a smash in the last few overs of the innings.

Predicted XI: Jos Buttler (WK), Ajinkya Rahane (C), Sanju Samson, Rahul TripathiBen Stokes, Stuart Binny, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Laughlin

Kings XI Punjab

Probable Changes – No Change

While Axar Patel has failed to make any substantial contribution with the bat, he bowled an economical spell last game and went for less than 6 per over in his quota of 4 which was a vital spell for Punjab.

Axar is a certain pick in the XI tomorrow, but it’s pretty clear that Punjab is not playing him as a specialist bowler. They have slotted him at no. 5/6 and are expecting some runs from him too. So he must bat well to justify his spot properly.

Marcus Stoinis has played two crucial cameos since his return to the XI and is looking in a decent nick. The Punjab management has probably marked him as their finisher going ahead and he should be getting a long run. He is most likely retaining his spot in the XI tomorrow.

Predicted XI: Chris Gayle, KL Rahul (WK), Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Axar Patel, Manoj Tiwary, Marcus Stoinis, Ravichandran Ashwin (C), Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Zadran

Team Comparison

Since Rajasthan is opening with Jos Buttler now, it has weakened their lower order batting and they are now entirely dependent on Ben Stokes to finish the innings. While Stokes is a gun player and has batted well in patches this IPL, he has been nowhere close to his best which is a big reason to worry from Rajasthan’s perspective.

Punjab is also a top-heavy team, but they would be very happy with KL Rahul’s approach last game where he curbed his attacking instincts and took the responsibility of taking the game deep and finishing it by himself. With the likes of Karun Nair and Marcus Stoinis chipping in and Gayle also hitting it crisp at the top, Punjab look a more settled batting unit.

Rajasthan can get their act together with the ball if they find room to play both Jofra and Laughlin. The spinners K Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal have been doing a decent job for them, while Unadkat bowled tight as well the other evening in Indore. It’s the death where they have to stop bleeding.

The Kings, although, do not have the strongest bowling attack on show, they have got the right kind of bowlers for Indian conditions. The likes of Andre Tye, Stoinis, Mujeeb and Ashwin take a liking to the sticky pitches which will be on offer a lot in the second half of IPL.

Probable Top Performers

Rahul Tripathi (Rajasthan Royals), Ravichandran Ashwin (Kings XI Punjab)

Head to Head

Matches – 16, Rajasthan Royals  – 9, Kings XI Punjab – 6, Tie – 1 (Kings XI Punjab won)

The timing of the match: 08:00 pm IST

Broadcast Details

TV – Star Sports 1, Star Sports Hindi, Star Sports Select 1

Online – Jio TV, Hotstar

The prediction is for the Kings XI Punjab to beat the Rajasthan Royals in this match.