THE EDGE: The Edge previews the IPL clash between Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The Indian Premier League continues on BETDAQ Betting Exchange as Rajasthan Royals take on Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday! Both these sides started the tournament on the backfoot with losses against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challenge Bengaluru. The Rajasthan Royals took an absolute hammering with their bowlers conceding 286/6 and while their batters gave it their best in the chase, there was little chance of them actually chasing that. Sanju Samson, Dhruv Jurel and Shimron Hetmyer all batted very well though, and that is a positive – they haven’t got a fantastic batting line-up so they need their key players to stand up and be counted.
While KKR didn’t quite take the beating that Rajasthan did, they lost quite easily too. They posted 174/8 at Eden Gardens which is well short of par, and RCB chased it down easily in 16.2 overs. KKR clearly didn’t fire with the bat, and they need more from Quinton de Kock, Venkatesh Iyer and Andre Russell if they are going to retain their crown! I do feel they have a lot of holes in their bowling line-up, so they definitely need their batters to fire. RCB were always in control in the chase; but you’d expect that given how high scoring Eden Gardens is these days.
It’s very early days in this IPL, but you get the feeling that this is a very important game for both sides. They both need a good bounce back win in franchise tournaments it’s easy to see the heads go down quite early with some opening losses.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
Rajasthan Royals are hosting their opening two home games at Guwahati. We had two games of IPL cricket here in 2023; and the two first inning scores were 197/4 and 199/4 – both won. In 2024 we also had two scheduled games here, but we had one washout so just the one result was 144/9 and that was chased successfully. Obviously it’s quite a small sample; it is nice to see the IPL move around a little more outside of the big grounds – I would expect a reasonably high scoring game, but you have to have an open mind in these situations.
RECOMMENDED BET:
It’s quite easy to pick holes in both sides here to be honest – it’s hard to have confidence in either side to be honest. I do feel their bowling is both their weak points; KKR have much better batting on paper but their key batters just didn’t fire in the opening game. Andre Russell tends to go through phases of form, and while he’s great to support on a good run, he can go quite a few games without runs. KKR are the clear favourites at 1.78, but that’s a little short for me – I think this game looks more even than the odds suggest, and I’m happy to have a small bet on Rajasthan at 2.18.
The Edge Says:
One point win Rajasthan Royals to beat Kolkata Knight Riders at 2.18 with BETDAQ Betting Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/RajKlk
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
We don’t have a huge sample from this ground, so I would go into the game with a reasonably open mind. As I said above, I do feel the weak point on both sides here is their bowling, so I’d be happy to take on both sides when bowling. I actually wouldn’t be surprised to see 200 posted in the opening innings and then it chased down. I know the two sides who batted first won last season, but the chases were quite close.
