Match 28 brings us a crucial midtable clash between the Rajasthan Royals and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur, on 13th April.
Indian Premier League 2025 | Match 28: Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru| 15:30 IST, April 13th
Having started their season on an even keel, Rajasthan Royals succumbed to their biggest defeat this season in their last league encounter against the Gujarat Titans away from home.
After asking GT to bat first, Sanju Samson’s team got the perfect start when Jofra Archer castled GT skipper Shubman Gill in the third over. However, left hander Sai Sudharsan played another match defining innings (82 runs off 53 balls) with solid contributions from both Jos Buttler (36 runs off 25 balls) and Shahrukh Khan (36 runs off 20 balls). In the end, the RR bowlers could only restrict them to 217 for 6, which was well above par.
The Royals were on the backfoot quite early into the chase after losing both Yashasvi Jaiswal and Nitish Rana for single digit scores. Samson and Riyan Parag stitched together a small partnership, however, Parag (26 runs off 14 balls), too, missed out on a good start.
As long as Samson was there in the middle, there was hope. But his dismissal in the 13th over followed by Impact Sub Shubham Dubey’s wicket broke the back of the RR run-chase. Shimron Hetmyer scored a brilliant 52 runs off 32 balls but in vain as the Titans bundled over RR in the 20th over for just 159.
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru, too, are coming into this contest after losing their previous game against the Delhi Capitals at home. Having played five games so far, they’ve lost both home games while winning three away from home.
Rajat Patidar – like their first home game – again lost the toss and was asked to bat first. However, unlike the first game, Phil Salt gave them a rollicking start with RCB posting 53-0 at the end of the third over. However, his bizarre runout in the fourth over changed the tie completely.
From 61 for 1 in 3.5 overs when Salt was runout, to 74 for 3 when Virat Kohli was dismissed in the 7th over, to 125 for 7 in 17.1 overs, none of the RCB batters were able stitch a partnership together or had any answers to the two leg spinners from DC (Vipraj Nigam and Kuldeep Yadav). If not for Tim David’s quickfire 37* from 20 balls, RCB won’t have reached 163 at the end of their 20 overs.
With the ball, RCB had a fantastic start, restricting DC to 30 for 3 and then 60 for 4 at the end of nine overs. However, KL Rahul’s difficult dropped chance during Yash Dayal’s over proved costly as the Karnataka batter scored an unbeaten 93 runs off 53 balls to take his team over the finish line with 13 balls to spare.
Looking at this first game at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium for Rajasthan Royals, the surface here has generally assisted fast bowlers, although spinners did find joy from time to time. Comparing both the batting lineups, the RCB batters have shown better form over the last five games.
Moreover, on paper, they have a superior pace bowling line-up compared to RR, who are heavily reliant on Jofra Archer with the new ball and Sandeep Sharma at the death. Thus, there’s every possibility that RCB come out of this match with their fourth away win on the bounce.
Fantasy XI: Dhruv Jurel, Phil Salt (c), Virat Kohli, Sanju Samson (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rajat Patidar, Riyan Parag, Jofra Archer, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Sandeep Sharma
Venue: Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Winner’s Prediction: Royal Challengers Bengaluru
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