Match 49 - Kolkata vs Rajasthan: CrickingDuels Fantasy Guide

This CrickingDuels Fantasy guide is for the match 49 of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season which will be played between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR). This game is going to be more thrilling one as the last week of the league stages has livened up the things with all the teams looking to confirm their berth in the playoffs. With Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) losing badly against RCB in Indore, two spots in the top four has opened up and no wonder both the teams would be eyeing two important points in this game.

Royals will have to be careful about not losing their heads on Jos Buttler’s form and the other batsmen should step up in case they lose him early in the innings. Dinesh Karthik and his men know that better as they have endured a couple of collapses before and one of them was against Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens. It will be interesting to see the way they will cope with the pressure in the crucial encounter.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) vs Rajasthan Royals (RR):

Batsmen

Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa and Nitish Rana are my three batsmen from Kolkata side thanks to the credits available upfront. Also, the fact that there are no explosive batsmen in the Royals side gives me the luxury of having these three players in the team. Sanju Samson has to be there in the line-up and Ajinkya Rahane also comes in courtesy his last knock against Mumbai Indians (MI). I have almost covered all the batsmen available it seems and a couple of them will surely strike well in this game.

All-Rounders

Finally, I am doing away with Ben Stokes in this game and has gone in with Andre Russell and Krishnappa Gowtham. Russell is still not at his best with the bat but has dramatically improved as the bowler. His batting skills are the bonus as I always believe and Gowtham has been brilliant and brave with the ball this season. He has picked the wickets of some of the best players in the business by bowling in the powerplay and his batting has also come good whenever needed.

Wicketkeeper

Jos Buttler is a no-brainer pick here. He is in amazing form with the bat and has missed a couple of centuries now. But has won games single-handedly for his team and will be itching to take his team into the playoffs by continuing in the same vein. The season for the Royals has turned around dramatically after they have promoted Butter to the top of the order and his consistency has been of top-class.

Bowlers

Sunil Narine continues to walk into my team on any given day and given the form he is in, he can surely hurt the Royals on a small ground. Jofra Archer is the next bowler whose extraordinary spell brought his team back in the game at the Wankhede and he will be again tipped to do the job. Javon Searles impressed everyone in the last game and I am picking him as not many would’ve taken him and any points earned by him would be a bonus.

So here’s our final CrickingDuels Fantasy team for this game: