KKR vs RR IPL 2024: Why can Rajasthan Royals Lose against KKR Today?

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In the 31st match of IPL 2024, Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns with Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Tuesday (April 16).

In their past 28 face-offs, the Royals emerged victorious on 13 occasions while Kolkata did the same for 14 times. In their last three face-offs, the Royals emerged victorious in two matches.

Both of the teams have been excellent so far this season and sitting at the top of the table. Both of them just lost one match each. RR have been shaky in some of the matches they won, while KKR, smashed their opponents on the way. As a result, Kolkata has skyrocketed its run rate to the highest among all its competitors.

IPL 2024: Why Rajasthan is looking Formidable in this Season?

As of now, Rajasthan bowling is doing a great job and can check their opponents from scoring a huge score in most of the matches. Besides that, their batting lineup is doing a phenomenal job this season. RR-skipper Sanju Samson is leading the team from the front and adding big runs to the scoreboard regularly. At the opening Yashasvi Jaiswal and Jos Buttler are providing a good start while at number 3 and 4 spot, Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag doing an excellent job in back-to-back matches. Parag is now in the second position in the race for the Orange cap with 284 runs, and the RR skipper is immediately next in line with 264 runs.

IPL 2024: Why can RR lose the Match against KKR?

Less Depth in the Batting Line-up: Even though all the Rajasthan batters are in tremendous form, if somehow the top and upper-middle order fail to build a large score, the remaining batters are yet to be tested. Till now players like Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dube and Tanush Kotian did not feel the pressure to play a big innings, thanks to the RR-top order.

Bouncy Pitch at Eden Gardens and the Knights Pace-attack: The venue of today's match is expected to favour the pacers and the Knights have an excellent pace-battery. Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Mitchell Starc and Andre Russel all are in good form and managed to scscalppponent batters in almost every other match. Whereas RR has been heavily dependent on Yuzvendra Cahal but in this pitch how much more effective he can be only time can tell. As for the RR fast bowlers, Trent Boult is delivering decent performances but has yet to reach his true potential. Nandre Burger also needs to step up to overcome today's hurdles.

Home Advantage of KKR: We used to see Eden Gardens as a fortress for the Knights in the past but for the last few years that was not the case. But now, with Gautam Gambhir at the helm of KKR-thinktank, the Knights's home is regaining its former status along with some gameplay we used to see in the time of Gambhir's captaincy like using Sunil Narine as an opener, choking opponents’ innings with meagre bowling in the middle overs. Besides that KKR remains unbeaten in their season.

The visitors have exceptional bowling performances so far, but they are yet to be tested against the in-form KKR batters. Also, RR batters have not crossed 200 in any of the innings, it is showing the over-dependency on the bowlers. If KKR bowling can manage to scalp the in-form RR batters early, their lack of depth in batting can be exposed. Hence, the battle would be between two very much balanced and in-form squads and any prediction would be difficult for this clash.