IPL 2023: Teams Preview-RR vs CSK [Match-37]

The Rajasthan Royals Had a brilliant start to the IPL, at Halfway through the stage they have become a little Shaky in execution out their on the field. They Have lost 2 consecutive Matches against Lucknow Super Giants and Royal Challengers Bangalore. However they will look to make a stronger comeback in the game vs Chennai Super Kings.

On the Other Side, Chennai Super Kings will be back with full vigor as they are coming from a convincing and almost 1 sided game against the Kolkata Knight Riders. They literally outwitted the KKR’s bowling attack as they Scored the Highest Total of 235 runs in their quota of 20 overs. Their Bowling also didn’t let them down as they gave a tough time to the KKR while chasing.

A Glance at The Performers of CSK…

The CSK team comfortably sits at the Top of the table with 10 points already, as this was a result of a very strong Batting unit and an emerging Bowling attack with youngsters like Matheesha Pathirana and Mahesh Teekhshana. Both Have Managed to get decent bowling figures in the last 2 games that CSK has played against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders.

In the Middle Order, Ajinkya Rahane Has been in some serious form as he is scoring runs with the Best strike Rate in the Tournament which is 199.04. He has also scored 2 fifties this season in 5 games that he played and also averages 52.25. Along with Rahane, Shivam Dube has also Contributed Significantly as he has scored 2 quick-fire fifties and has been on a run-scoring spree as he has already scored 184 runs in 6 innings that he batted, with a strike rate of 157.26 and an Average of 30.67

CSK is Highly likely to go for their 4th consecutive win in this game as they have Ticked all the Boxes when it comes to All the departments of the game. Be it their Batting, Bowling, or fielding there is nothing that they Have done wrong until now and it will be interesting to see How long can they keep up this momentum that they have created for themselves.

Rajasthan’s Points of Interest for Victory!

The Rajasthan Royals Have deviated from their regular way of performances as there are a few good individual performances which they Couldn’t Capitalize on in the last 2 games vs the LSG and RCB. It felt that they just gave up as the momentum shifted a little towards the opposition especially in the last 2 games that they played. However Rajasthan Royals performances have been satisfactory until now.

They will want to come back stronger and execute their plans in the right manner as they could look at a few key aspects which I believe are the major cause of their losses in the last 2 games. If we compare The middle order of RR with CSK, a major chunk of CSK’s batting success has come with the middle order capitalizing on the solid foundation laid by their Openers.

However, this hasn’t been the case for Rajasthan as they Have someone like Shimron Hetmyer who can easily take control of their batting Single-Handedly. But He has to fire like what Rahane and Shivam Dube have done for the CSK. He has managed to get some quick 20-30 runs but has crossed the 50-run mark only once against the Gujarat Titans which resulted in a win for the Royals in a nail-bitter match. He has been good with a strike rate of 167.26 and an Average of 63.00.

Skipper Sanju Samson will also Have to step up and get those Starts to big innings as he has also managed to score only 2 fifties with an average of 25.86 and a strike rate of 158.77. He needs to Anchor the batting of RR as he always does and the Runs will keep coming for him. He also needs to make sure that he spends some time as there are many Batsmen in the RR’s lineup who could fire from one end. Recently Devdutt Padikkal also scored a brilliant 50 against the RCB which gave momentum to the Royals until he was dismissed.

CSK Openers vs RR’s Key Bowlers!

Another Factor for the Royals who could be a threat to the CSK batting in the Powerplay could be Trent Boult who has been phenomenal this season in the powerplays. He has got 6 out of his 9 wickets in the Powerplay while bowling the 1st Over. So He should be a key bowler against the CSK openers and expose the middle order early on in the innings.

Another thing that can be done is to bring the spin as early as possible in the powerplay because Rajasthan Royals have Wicket-taking spinners like Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin. This would probably not give the CSK openers to settle down and they might lose their wicket to the quality spinners like them.

Match-ups to look for!

Trent Boult vs Ruturaj Gaikwad: This is a match-up where the result could go either way and is probably the most exciting match-up in this game. Until this point, it is Trent Boult who has proved his dominance over Gaikwad as the latter has lost his wicket 3 times in 4 Innings that he played against Boult. Ruturaj has also not been able to score those many runs against Him as he has managed only 22 runs out of 24 balls against Boult until Now.

Conclusion :

This Game is going to be yet another thriller as both teams are well-balanced and performed consistently until Halfway Stage. It will be very difficult to tell which side will the game will go on as both teams have genuine match-winners and some performers who are either currently performing or are yet to perform. This is not going to be an easy one for Both Teams, but looking at the performance of Teams in the last 3-4 games, CSK is Slightly ahead of this competition and will be keen to win this game to level the scores at 1-1 between the 2 teams for this season.