Rajasthan Royals (RR) will take on Delhi Capitals (DC) in the 11th game of the Indian Premier League 2023 on Saturday April 8 at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. This will be the second game of the season in Guwahati. The Royals lost the previous game at this venue by 5 runs against Punjab Kings while chasing a target of 198 runs. They have won one and lost one game in the season so far. In their first game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, the Royals posted a total of 203 runs for the loss of five wickets in 20 overs. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, and Sanju Samson all scored half-centuries for the team. Yuzvendra Chahal picked up four wickets for 17 runs in four overs with the ball.
Against the Punjab Kings, the Royals won the toss and elected to bowl. The Kings scored 197 runs for the loss of four wickets by the end of the 20 overs. Both openers, Prabhsimran Singh and Shikhar Dhawan, scored half-centuries each for the team. In reply the Royals scored 57 runs in the powerplay but lost three wickets, including Jaiswal and Buttler. The middle-order brought RR back into the game. Shimron Hetmyer played an explosive knock of 36 runs off 18 deliveries. But it was Dhruv Jurel who caught the eye for the Royals. The debutant came on as an impact player and smashed 32 runs off 15 deliveries. Although the Royals lost the game, they found a player in Jurel who could play the role of the finisher for them down the order.
The RR coaching staff will be hoping for a repeat of their all-round performance from the opening game as RR dominated the game with both bat and ball. While against PBKS in the second game the bowlers were hit all over the park and the batters did well to keep the team in the game but in the end fell agonisingly short of the 198-run target.
The explosive RR batting line-up have turned up in both the games so far with Jaiswal, Buttler, Samson, Hetmyer, Parag, and debutant Jurel all chipping in with important contributions. Skipper Sanju Samson is the top run-getter for the franchise this season with 97 runs in the two games.
Buttler remains a doubt for the game against DC as he picked up a finger injury in the last game.
While the bowling unit complemented each other well and ensured a dominant victory for RR in the first game, they were ineffective in the second game.
While Holder and Ashwin have been economical, they have only been able to snap up 5 wickets between them.
On the other hand, Chahal has scalped 5 wickets alone but was very expensive in the second game conceding 50 runs in his 4 overs. Boult too has not been at his best, only picking up 2 wickets so far.
RR will hope that their bowlers can once again dominate opposition batters in the game against DC as that combined with their consistent batting performance will all but ensure a victory for the home side.
RR predicted XI vs DC
Openers: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Middle Order: Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (c) (wk), Shimron Hetmyer.
All-Rounders: Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jason Holder.
Bowlers: Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, KM Asif.
Impact player options: Akash Vashisht, Dhruv Jurel, Murugan Ashwin, Kuldip Yadav and Donovan Ferreira.