MONDAY IPL: The Edge previews Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
Rajasthan Royals v Chennai Super Kings
MATCH OVERVIEW:
The IPL is starting to hit full stride now, and after the opening weekend, we settle into a new week on Betdaq Betting Exchange as Rajasthan Royals host Chennai Super Kings. No doubt the headline act here is MS Dhoni – the legend of Indian cricket returns to yet another IPL at 44! Every year everyone talks about retirement, and yet he comes back for more. What role he plays this season remains to be seen, but we have a very interesting game here with two proud franchises looking to bounce back after finishing bottom two in IPL 2025. These two sides were involved in some massive swaps in the off-season too.
Sanju Samson has swapped Rajasthan pink for Chennai yellow, with Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran heading in the opposite direction. Probably one of the most high-profile player trades in IPL history? Samson led Rajasthan Royals from 2021 to 2025, captaining them to 67 matches and the 2022 final. Jadeja spent 13 years at CSK – he is a legend of that franchise – and now he returns to the franchise where his IPL career truly began. One of the crazy things about the IPL is that even in away games, fan favourites get supported all over India – the home crowd will be going wild for MS Dhoni for example! The star performer here though is Samson – he arrives at CSK in the best form of his career. He was named Player of the Tournament at the T20 World Cup 2026. He could boss this IPL.
Rajasthan have a new captain and will be looking to start afresh. Jadeja adds vital all-round balance in the middle order, and Jofra Archer spearheads a pace attack. I feel Rajasthan need a fast start, but you could say the same for CSK to be honest. Both sides were poor in 2025 – CSK finished bottom of the table for the first time ever, both won just four games each, so both are clearly desperate for a fast start.
WEATHER AND PITCH WATCH:
We’re at Rajasthan’s secondary home ground in Guwahati – this ground has hosted a limited number of IPL games, so we have don’t have a huge data sample. The pitch is generally batting-friendly with good bounce and pace, and the outfield is fast. Average score is around 180, but this is definitely a ground where we have to go into the game with an open mind. We had two games here last season – the first inning scores were 151/9 (chased) and 182/9 (won). In 2024, we had one completed game here with a score of 144/9 (chased). Obviously the massive thing to watch for is dew, and that will give the chasing side an edge but I wouldn’t be expecting a run-fest here – to be honest this is a wicket that you must see how the opening few overs play.
RECOMMENDED BET:
It’s easy to pick holes in both sides here given they were poor last season. They were basically adrift from the rest at the bottom of the table. CSK have the in-form superstar – Samson in this kind of form is a match-winner on his own. Rajasthan have made some good signings in my opinion, and will surely be better than last season. This should be a competitive game, and I do feel we should have a more even market. CSK are favourites at 1.85, but that looks too short in my opinion. I can see Jadeja returning to haunt his old side; I also feel the CSK bowling is a little weak in that middle-overs period. I’m happy with a small bet on Rajasthan from a value point of view.
The Edge Says:
One point win Rajasthan Royals to beat Chennai Super Kings at 2.14 with Betdaq Betting Exchange
View the market here -> https://betdaq.biz/IPRaCh
IN-RUNNING STRATEGY:
The dew is the absolute key factor here, you have to watch closely for that. It will likely decide what a par score here is; we have a limited data sample so it’s hard to go into this game with a set in-running strategy. We have seen reasonably low scores in two of the last three IPL games here. I said above, I feel the CSK bowling might be a little lacking in the middle overs and that might be a good time to support Rajasthan. We should have a pretty close 50/50 game here in my opinion though with plenty of swings in the market.
