Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings - Match Preview

🏏 27 April 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

Cricket’s own ‘royal rumble’ is set to take place on Thursday evening local time when the Rajasthan Royals take on the Chennai Super Kings at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. While both sides currently sit near the top of the IPL table, the recent matches between these sides have been anything but close, with Rajasthan having won five of the last six head-to-head clashes.

Rajasthan came out of the gates firing in this IPL by winning four of their first games, but as of late things haven't been going as well, highlighted by recent losses against both Lucknow and Bangalore. The issue as of late has been the lack of run scoring during the powerplay: through their first five matches, Rajasthan was scoring at more than 11rpo during that period, but with a Jos Buttler slowdown (40 from 41) and a duck, their powerplay rate has been just eight runs per over in the last two matches.

This match is also first vs second for the most prolific run scorers in the 2023 IPL and Rajasthan will need to find a way to score more heavily and increase their overall totals if they are to compete with Chennai’s average of 189.29 runs per innings compared with 182 for Rajasthan. Shimron Hetmyer could be the key there as he comes into this match with a 2023 IPL average of 62.66, hitting two sixes per innings on average. With the ball, Trent Boult will once again be key within the powerplay for Rajasthan having taken seven wickets at an average of just 13 during that period - the bulk of which were in the opening over of the innings - while going at a rate of just 6.06rpo.

Chennai is currently sitting pretty under the leadership of the now 41-year-old MS Dhoni. One wouldn't know his age by looking at the batting numbers, which have seen him be dismissed only once this season while scoring 61 runs from just 31 balls. The ‘finisher’ is still alive and kicking! Whilst Dhoni has been good, it’s been two other veterans who have dominated, those being Devon Conway and Ajinkya Rahane who are both averaging more than 50 but Rahane has been simply incredible going at the best part of 12rpo. Incredibly, their strike rate of Rahane rises to 13.33 during the powerplay, by far the fastest of all batters to score more than 100 runs during that period.

The winning streak now sits at three matches for CSK after a dismantling of Kolkata just a few days ago. Once again it was the experienced combo of Conway (56 from 40) and Rahane (71 from 29) before Shivam Dube got in the action with 50 from just 21 to get CSK to 235 from 20 overs. The pressure was clearly too much for all the KKR batters except Jason Roy and all the CSK bowlers took wickets, Matheesha Pathirana being the best of them with 1/27. It was a massive win by 49 runs and a blueprint of how this experienced CSK lineup will be going about their cricket in the second half of this IPL.

⚡ Key battle: Sanju Samson hasn’t had a great IPL 2023 with the bat, averaging just 25.85 while being removed for two ducks this season. He will face another challenge against CSK if he has to come up against Ravindra Jadeja who has removed him on three occasions in the IPL while going for 64 from 43 balls.

📋 Stat attack: The chasing team won six of the last seven games in Jaipur.

• Ravichandran Ashwin to Ajinkya Rahane: 5/52 at 7.43rpo.
• Trent Boult to Ruturaj Gaikwad: 3/22 from 24 balls.
• When winning the toss Chennai have gone on to win 62% of IPL matches.
• The average first innings score at this venue is just 158 and the previous match this season saw just 154 scored.
• Yashasvi Jaiswal has 146 powerplay runs this season at an average of 48.66 while going at 9.41rpo.
• Chennai have lost just five wickets during the powerplay this IPL, the best in the tournament.
• Yuzvendra Chahal has bowled in 16 matches against Chennai, taking 18 wickets at 6.92rpo.