IPL 2019: Rajasthan Royals Seek to Secure First Win in IPL 2019

In super Sunday’s second IPL 2019 match, Chennai Super Kings will host bottom-placed Rajasthan Royals at the Chepauk Stadium. The two teams have had contrasting results until now with CSK winning both their matches while RR losing both of theirs. The pitch will take the center stage in the match 12 of the IPL 2019. It will be interesting to see how the Chepauk pitch behaves after disappointing in the opening game of the league between CSK and RCB.

Defending champions CSK started the IPL 2019 season on a positive note, beating the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 7 wickets. In their second match, the Super Kings got the better of Delhi Capitals in chasing 148 runs comfortably.

Whereas RR has been on the unlucky side in both their IPL 2019 games. In their opening match vs Kings XI Punjab, they lost momentum after the ‘mankading’ incident, losing the match. In their second match, Sunrisers Hyderabad chased down a big total of 198 runs put on board by Rajasthan Royals. The brilliance of David Warner took the match away from RR.

The IPL 2019 matchup between the two looks like a battle of CSK bowlers vs RR batsmen.

It will be the second IPL 2019 match at home for CSK and their spinners will play an important role in the match. With the likes of Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir, and Ravindra Jadeja, the opposition can expect at least one of them to bowl in the powerplay overs.

For the Royals, the burden will be on their star batsman Sanju Samson to put up a show again. The IPL 2019 side depends a lot on Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler. They would hope one or more than one of them to fire again before the Ben Stokes takes the strike at the lower order.

A lot depends on the pitch whether it will perform the same or not. In order to give some life to the pitch, a temporary tent-like structure has been protecting it from excessive heat ahead of the IPL 2019 match. The protection was removed on Saturday and we hope to see a refreshed pitch.

CSK coach Stephen Fleming commented on the IPL 2019 pitch on Saturday. He said, “We have watched the preparation, which has been extensive over the last three days that we have been here. The pitch certainly wasn’t up to scratch in the first game. Contrary to belief, it wasn’t by design from us. We have looked at the surface. It looks a lot better. It looks harder and compact, but we have to be flexible and play accordingly.”

The weather condition can be testing for players as the temperature hitting the 35-degree mark with 70 percent humidity.

The two IPL 2019 teams have met 20 times before and CSK leads their head-to-head with 12 wins, while RR winning 8 of them. The Super Kings have won their last 5 IPL 2019 matches While Royals winning only 1 in their last 5.

A lot depends on the toss, with the chasing team winning the match 4 times in the previous 5 matches played at Chepauk. Rajasthan would be hoping to get their first IPL 2019 win of the season. Meanwhile Chennai would be aiming to get at the top of the IPL 2019 table. It will surely be an interesting contest to watch.

Probable XI:

Chennai Super Kings: Shane Watson, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (C) (WK), Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, Harbhajan Singh, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir, Deepak Chahar.

Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane ©, Jos Buttler (WK), Sanju Samson, Steve Smith, Rahul Tripathi, Ben Stokes, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Sudhesan Midhun.