THE KINGS VS THE ROYALS
A high scoring thriller awaits as Kings XI Punjab take on Rajasthan Royals in Sharjah tonight.
PUNJAB’S POWER AND PROWESS
The Captain’s Corner
KL Rahul is now the Indian with the highest score in a match in the IPL. His 132 against RCB showed not only his ability to hit sixes at will but the kind of class he carries. Rahul has been Punjab’s highest scorer for the last 2 seasons and this year looks no different. An interesting contest awaits as Rahul and Archer go head to head.
Beast Bowling at its Best
It’s still early days in the tournament but to say that Punjab has probably the best bowling attack wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Shami and Cottrell up-front have been able to take those early wickets and the spinners, particularly the young Ravi Bishnoi capitalize on the pressure, making it an all-round bowling unit.
Small Boundaries could see Gayle’s Return
If there’s a perfect ground to play Gayle, it’s Sharjah. Gayle could play with half a bat and still miss-time the ball for sixes in Sharjah. But if he does come in for Pooran, it will mean pushing Mayank at three, who looked to enjoy his time as an opener.
THE “ROYALS” BUT STILL UNDERDOGS
An Intimidating Batting Order?
Their match against CSK saw as many as 17 sixes, with Samson alone hitting 9 of them. Archer showed that he can give the boost at the death but he’s surely not a very reliable finisher with the bat especially when the team moves out of Sharjah.
Yes Buttler is back and that will multi-fold increase their batting strength but they desperately need someone to finish the job. Ben Stokes has left a hole which Rajasthan doesn’t have the ammunition to fill.
Bowling Bruises to he Healed
Surely one can’t be too skeptical about the bowling in a match where more than 400 runs were scored. Tom Curran and Jaydev Undakat will have amends to make, especially Unadkat who has been under the pump from the last 2 seasons.
A MATCH OF LEG SPINNERS
Everyone knows King Rahul, the captain of the Kings XI. But Rajasthan has Rahul Tewatia, who took 3 crucial wickets in the last game. Whereas Bishnoi and Murugan Ashwin took 3 each themselves in their last game. Both the teams have a similar aged spin attack, not much experience and all of them leg spinners. Which team wins could well be decided by the leggie duo that wins
PREDICTED XI
RR: Jos Buttler(wk), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Steve Smith(c), Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa, RahulTewatia, Tom Curran, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat
KXIP: KL Rahul(c, wk), Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Sarfaraz Khan, Jimmy Neesham, Murugan Ashwin, Sheldon Cottrell, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami
DATE: 27th September 2020
PLACE: Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah
TIME: 7:30 pm IST
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