RR vs RCB 2nd Qualifier Match Prediction

RR vs RCB Team Previews

Rajasthan Royals

RR did not play its best cricket in Qualifier 1 but it still managed to put up a formidable fight. Jos Buttler recovered from a slow start to explode during the final few overs, Sanju Samson played an absolute flyer, and Devdutt Padikkal looked in good form once more but the fluency in the inning was missing.

The lack of batting depth has so far been compensated by Jos Buttler's tremendous batting form but there is no doubt that the team is very vulnerable to a couple of early wickets.

One of the big things in favor of RR so far was its brilliant bowling attack. You can rely on Trent Boult to give you early wickets and on Yuzvendra Chahal to be very difficult to hit during the second half of the bowling stint Both of them had a middling game while Prasidh Krishna and R Ashwin had bad ones.

Obed McCoy looks to be a good fit in this lineup.

It will be interesting to see if RR is tempted to bring in someone like Jimmy Neesham or even Karun Nair to bolster the batting depth and sacrifice some bowling quality in the process.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB was a bit lucky to have won the Eliminator against LSG as a lot of things went its way but there is no doubt that Rajat Patidar played a superlative knock. He was striking the ball brilliantly from the moment he walked in and took all the pressure away from the other batters.

Having someone like Dinesh Karthik, who is basically producing AB de Villiers like knocks, is also a massive advantage.

The concern for RCB will be its top order. There is no doubt about it but in most cases, the longer Virat Kohli spends in the middle, the lower will be RCB's chances of getting to a big total. He once again scored just 25 off 24 while opening the batting and looked out of form.

Faf du Plessis is a big match player and we think he matches up quite well to the RR bowling attack as well. He could be one player to bet on in this match. Rajat Patidar, Mahipal Lomror, and Dinesh Karthik form a strong middle-order with Shahbaz Ahmed and Wanindu Hasaranga all capable of contributing as well if needed.

We don't think there is much difference in the batting strength of the two teams and it will come down to performances on the day.

RCB's bowling attack is pretty exceptional. Wanindu Hasaranga has more wickets in the middle-overs than anyone else in IPL 2022. He is also generally very economical. Then you add Harshal Patel in the death-overs where everyone seems to know what he will bowl but is still unable to hit it!

Josh Hazelwood, Mohammad Siraj, and Shahbaz Ahmed round out a very strong bowling lineup.

RCB would probably prefer to bat without any pressure, get a big score, and then ask its bowlers to do the tough job of defending once more.