Royal Challengers will be desperate to get their campaign on track while Rajasthan Royals will be keen to get back to winning ways when they face off at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera on Friday
RR's Ajinkya Rahane, who holds the orange cap for highest scorer and Virat Kohli pull one against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in Kolkata recently. The skipper will be keen to get his team over the line today
Ahmedabad: Pushed to the bottom of the heap after three successive losses, it would take an extraordinary performance from Royal Challengers Bangalore to get the better of table-toppers Rajasthan Royals when the two sides clash in an IPL match in Ahmedabad on Friday.
RR's Ajinkya Rahane, who holds the orange cap for highest scorer and Virat Kohli pull one against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in Kolkata recently. The skipper will be keen to get his team over the line today. Pics/PTI
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With five wins from six matches, Rajasthan are sitting pretty at the top with 10 points, their only loss coming against Kings XI Punjab in which they were beaten in the eliminator after a tie. RCB, in contrast, are lying at the bottom with three losses from four matches, their only win being against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders in their tournament-opener.
Nothing seems to be clicking for RCB so far despite having perhaps the most explosive line-up of batsmen on paper.
RCB fail to fire
Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers, Rilee Rossouw have proven records of striking mortal fear into opposition attacks but for reasons unknown, have failed to fire big so far in the tournament.
Although Kohli and de Villiers have not done too badly, Gayle's form has been huge letdown and he sat out of the team's previous match against Chennai Super Kings.
The West Indian marauder is enduring a nightmarish IPL by his standards and will have to rediscover his destructive best quickly for RCB to stay afloat. The team's bowling is also yet to produce a noteworthy effort despite being spearheaded by World Cup's Man of the Tournament Mitchell Starc.
Rajasthan, on the other hand, have been rolling along smoothly from the first match. Their batting has a settled look with Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson combining well in the opening slots.
The middle order has the rock solid Steve Smith to anchor the innings but the loss to Kings XI Punjab in the previous match did expose some bowling frailties of the side. Given their campaign so far, Rajasthan will start outright favourites against RCB.