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IPL: Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings Preview

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Can the Rajasthan Royals keep their play-off dream alive when they welcome the Chennai Super Kings to the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Friday’s IPL clash?

Friday’s showdown sees a desperate Rajasthan Royals outfit needing nothing less than a win against the red-hot Chennai Super Kings to keep their hopes of a play-off place alive.

Can the hosts revive their stuttering campaign or will MS Dhoni and his men take another giant leap toward a play-off spot? Let’s take a look:

RR vs CSK | Friday 11 May | Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur | 16:30

To Win Match
Rajasthan Royals 5/4
Tie 35/1
Chennai Super Kings 66/100

Rajasthan Royals
The Royals will remember all too well the hiding they caught at the hands of the Super Kings earlier this season. Loose bowling and a scorecard which saw no fewer than six players fail to reach double-figures contributed to a heavy 64-run loss in April.

Worryingly for the Royals as they come up against a loaded CSK top and middle order, is their failure to amass healthy totals when batting first or their inability to chase down meagre targets. You feel that they’ll need to set or chase down 180+ against what has been the most impressive batting unit in the competition thus far.

Jos Buttler will be key in this regard. The Englishman’s recent form has been nothing short of sensational. Pushing him up the order top open has proved a stroke of genius. He’s been absolutely deadly in the Power Play overs – scoring three consecutive half-centuries – and will no doubt be desperate to get his side off to a fast start again.

There’ll also be plenty of eyes on Buttler’s countryman, Ben Stokes. His failure to deliver with both bat and ball have been well documented this season. He needs to step up to the plate now with his side needing a minor miracle to make the play-offs.

Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings come into this match as heavy favourites, and rightly so. They’ve been devastating with bat in hand, routinely scoring 200+ on their way to seven wins from their 10 matches.

Key to this success has been the form of Ambati Rayudu (423 tournament runs at 42.30), MS Dhoni (360 at 90.00) and Shane Watson (328 at 45.85). The trio have terrorised bowling attacks up and down the country and will be licking their lips at the prospect of facing the team with the worst NRR in the tournament.

There is still a little question mark over the bowling attack. Lungi Ngidi has bedded in well after coming into the team and complimented David Willey nicely against the Royal Challengers Bangalore last time out. Still, they’ll need to strike more regularly at the start of the innings. Removing Buttler early doors has to be near to top of the priority list.

The spin duo of Harbajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja will also look to pick up where they left off against the Royal Challengers. The pair picked up five wickets between them and only conceded 40 runs from their collective eight overs. A similar performance will almost guarantee them victory against a much weaker batting unit.

Verdict: Chennai Super Kings 66/100
There’s only one winner here. The Super Kings have been the most exciting team in the tournament and should blow the Royals away with yet another strong batting performance. Big value here in my opinion at 66/100.

Written by Jason Dewey for Hollywoodbets

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