Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Capitals - Match Preview

🏏 8 April 2023 - 14:00 GMT +0

Two franchises that suffered losses during the week will kick off the second weekend of the 2023 Indian Premier League when the Assam Cricket Association Stadium in Guwahati hosts its second and final Rajasthan Royals home game, this time against the winless Delhi Capitals. Rajasthan remains on two points (W1, L1) after thrashing Sunrisers Hyderabad on the opening weekend and, considering they scored 192 runs in a five-run loss to Punjab Kings, shouldn’t be too discouraged by the result. Potentially losing star batter Jos Buttler to a finger injury would be more worrying, particularly as they didn't play a single game without him in 2022 - and lost five of their seven in 2021 when they did!

Conceding 197 after winning the toss and choosing to bowl would have been especially disappointing after Trent Boult was not able to repeat his powerplay bowling exploits against Hyderabad, being treated with disdain by determined Punjab openers Prabhsimran Singh and Shikhar Dhawan. It was the fifth time in six games that the Royals could not take more than one powerplay wicket, and the season-long absence of Prasidh Krishna, Boult’s partner-in-crime last year (ten powerplay wickets each - both amongst the fourth highest in the league) will likely be felt for some time.

Punjab bowler Nathan Ellis may have received the oversized novelty cheque for Player of the Match, but it was the Guwahati curator who was the MVP once again, producing a pitch that saw 389 runs scored in a thrilling contest following a 458 run feast involving India and South Africa last year. The conditions should thus allow for plenty of free flowing run-scoring, especially if Yashasvi Jaiswal can get a start alongside whoever is likely to replace Buttler at the top of the order - and it probably won't be Ravichandran Aswhin again!

Delhi’s successful 6-3 H2H record across Rajasthan’s many home grounds probably means nothing at all in a new stadium and after three years of neutral tussles, but their seven wins from the last nine clashes certainly do. These sides split the points last season courtesy of match-winning scores from the potentially absent Buttler in one game and Delhi’s Mitchell Marsh in the other, who is yet to make an impact after scores of 0 and 4 following three excellent ODI knocks in India last month.

Perhaps the Capitals can go have a coffee somewhere with the Chennai players prior to this match and lament how they too were overrun by the Gujarat Titans’ fast bowlers, middle-order batters and Rashid Khan. On home turf, they posted a lower score (162/8) than any of the eight seen in the 2021 edition of the IPL and are also suffering from Prithvi Shaw and Mukesh Kumar both being out of sorts, whilst Sarfaraz Khan wilted during the middle overs at slower than a run per ball. A faster pitch should suit Delhi captain David Warner at the top of the order, though fast bowler Anrich Nortje will have to be crafty when bowling to the likes of Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel, both of whom like working with the pace of the ball to complete flicks, scoops and ramps behind square.

⚡ Key battles: Rajasthan wicketkeeper Sanju Samson (55 & 42) and David Warner (56 & 37) have each recorded their respective teams’ top scores of the innings in both of their matches this edition. Samson is especially explosive against Delhi’s Khaleel Ahmed (56/0 from 28 balls), whilst Warner has never been dismissed by Trent Boult in a franchise T20 (44/0 from 36).

📋 Stat attack: The last ten H2Hs were won by the team to score the most sixes.

• Rajasthan hit the most sixes in four of their last five games, with the other producing a tied count.
• The pre-match outsider has won 75% (12) of Delhi’s last 16 matches.
• Nine of the 11 first innings scores of greater than 160 runs in Rajasthan-Delhi H2Hs were successfully defended.
• Jason Holder has taken just two wickets from nearly 32 overs bowled against Delhi at a whopping average of 139.00 (9.99rpo).
• Trent Boult to Prithvi Shaw in IPL: 3/28 from 25 balls bowled.

Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings - Match Preview

🏏 8 April 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

How cruel it must feel for the Chennai Super Kings players and staff to be back in Mumbai so soon after taking on the Mumbai Indians away twice during the bizarre 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL) season, particularly as they return to the site of an embarrassing 97 all out. But on a fresh slate, and with no Daniel Sams to torment Chennai as he did twice last year with seven wickets across two appearances, the IPL’s most storied rivalries is set to write a uniquely new chapter.

If things go to plan and fall into place for both franchises in 2023, they could be facing off in a tenth playoff match or even a fifth final next month. That certainly hasn’t yet been the case for Mumbai, who were demolished by Royal Challengers Bangalore in their opening and only game of the season, failing to take a single wicket in the first 14 overs of their bowling innings despite a fully fit Jofra Archer being back.

The withdrawals of Jasprit Bumrah and Jhye Richardson for the entire season through injury have severely dented their bowling stocks and their heavily inexperienced attack, which in their first match consisted of four bowlers with fewer than ten IPL caps each, a veteran (Piyush Chawla) who was working as a commentator during the 2022 IPL, and another (Archer) who missed two entire seasons through injury. With their teammates having already languished through IPL 2022 as the slowest scoring batting side (8.19rpo), these bowlers are going to have to learn quickly and on the go.

Chennai’s two matches so far (W1, L1) have had no shortage of entertainment or runs with 395 runs scored and 387 runs conceded already in two games that both went down to the final over of the run chase. After not getting over the line against Gujarat, they were able to strangle Lucknow just enough during the middle overs (where they are currently conceding just 7.80rpo) to ensure a 12-run victory despite being outscored by the Super Giants both in the powerplay and in the final four overs.

Captain MS Dhoni controversially and publicly lambasted his bowlers for conceding 13 wides and three no-balls in the run chase, with Tushar Deshpande especially culpable when conceding 45+ runs as an Impact Player for a second time, albeit this time with key wickets of Nicholas Pooran and Ayush Badoni in the last five overs. Dhoni took the gamble of giving Ben Stokes the second over of the bowling innings and regretted it almost immediately when the in-form Kyle Mayers clubbed two sixes and a four to begin building momentum, so it’ll be interesting to see if Stokes gets another bowl here when the Super Kings already had six other options.

⚡ Players to watch: What would Piyush Chawla and Ambati Rayudu be doing these days if it were not for T20 cricket? The two veterans, who have each represented both teams over their lengthy careers, have been going at it in this competition since 2010. Chawla has dismissed Rayudu in five separate seasons for career figures of 6/76 from 49. The leg-spinner has now taken multiple wickets in just one of his last 11 IPL games, the bulk of which were for Chennai in 2020. Meanwhile, Rayudu has cleared 30 runs in just one of 11 knocks for the men in yellow at Wankhede.

📋 Stat attack: The all-time average first innings score at the Wankhede Stadium is 166, which barely changed when focusing solely on last season (167).

• Mumbai have a 7-3 H2H record exclusively at the Wankhede Stadium.
• Chennai conceded the most powerplay runs in seven of their last nine matches.
• Mumbai posted the highest opening partnership in eight of the last ten H2Hs, as well as the most powerplay runs in a separate lot of eight in those ten games.
• The three matches involving either team so far this season have all seen at least 20 total sixes scored.
• In Chennai’s two games in 2023, Ruturaj Gaikwad has already amassed 70 powerplay runs at 12.72rpo without being dismissed.
• Tilak Varma has top scored for Mumbai in four of their last 14 innings.
• Deepak Chahar took the second-most wickets (eight) of any player at Wankhede Stadium last year, although those were accumulated via two four-wicket hauls and three wicketless innings.
• Jofra Archer has career H2H figures of 3/22 from 11 balls bowled to Moeen Ali as well as 2/4 from 13 balls delivered to Ambati Rayudu.