The Rajasthan Royals may have lost the last unbeaten record in the 2015 Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday, when they were defeated by the Kings XI Punjab in a super over shoot out, but they still sit proudly at the top of the table, with five wins from their six fixtures.
On Friday they entertain the dangerous Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad. Although the visitors are a dangerous opponent, they have shown little to strike fear into their opponents in the IPL this season, and are currently at the foot of the table, with just one win from their four games.
The Royals have won the last three meetings of the two sides, in each of which they batted second and successfully chased a target. A policy that has served them well during the current campaign, where they have won a number of close encounters when batting second.
Rajasthan have been led by Australia’s Shane Watson, who has been an inspirational skipper himself, and has had fine back up by two other Australian World Cup winners, Steve Smith and James Faulkner. But it hasn’t just been about the overseas contingent, and Ajinkya Rahane who shared a stand of 144 with Watson against the Chennai Super Kings has also proved to be a key player, and he leads the chase for the orange cap with 305 runs.
Both teams are stronger in the batting department than they are in the bowling, and Friday’s game may come down to which batting order performs the best on the day, and on current showing in 2015 that is more likely to be the home side.
If Bangalore can get Chris Gayle back onto the field of course, 9-10 overs of him in the middle could easily change the course of the game.