Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore | RR vs RCB Live Scores & Commentary, IPL Live 2023

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Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore | RR vs RCB Live Scores & Commentary, IPL Live 2023

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Preview: Five defeats over their last six games had put the erstwhile table-toppers Rajasthan Royals outside the playoffs cutoff, but it took a record fastest IPL fifty and a resounding away win in Kolkata earlier this week to bring them back in contention for the knockouts. As they prepare to sign off from their home base this season, RR would hope to keep the winning streak going against an inconsistent Royal Challengers Bangalore contingent in Jaipur on Sunday.

Both teams are heading into the game with contrasting results in their previous outings - Rajasthan Royals swatted KKR aside by 9 wickets courtesy a Yashasvi Jaiswal special, whereas RCB were handed a thumping by Mumbai Indians, who chased down a 200-run target with 21 balls to spare. What RR's easy win has done is given their NRR a significant boost, meaning if they win both their remaining games and finish tied (with one or more teams) on 16 points, they have a healthy NRR of 0.633 to fall back upon which is only the second best among the current top-four.

It wasn't long ago that RCB had a real shot at breaking into the top-four, against a hapless Delhi Capitals, but their two losses since have dragged them back into the mid-table traffic jam. However, they do have an extra game in hand compared to their opponents on Sunday. RCB have struggled for momentum ever since the second half of the tournament began, dropping three of their four games in this intense battle for a playoffs spot. In a tightly-contested season like this, they can ill afford to lose another.

The Royals' win at the Eden Gardens was a complete all-round show with not just Jaiswal but also Yuzvendra Chahal rewriting the history books, as his four-fer made him the highest wicket-taker in the competition's history. As such, they are the team in form with the added home advantage.

RCB, on the other hand, are still suffering from their over-reliance on star batters who have done the bulk of scoring for the team throughout the season. Case in point - amongst the season's top 12 century partnerships, Bangalore account for half, and their captain Faf du Plessis has featured in all six, either with Virat Kohli or Glenn Maxwell. Now, their defeat in Mumbai also put the bowling under the scanner, after MI and Suryakumar Yadav made the 200 chase look like a cakewalk. At a ground with bigger boundaries, RCB will have to be at their absolute best in all three departments to not let yet another shot to make the playoffs slip away.

Rajasthan Royals Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Joe Root, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, KM Asif, Yuzvendra Chahal, Donavon Ferreira, Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag, Murugan Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Jason Holder, Kuldip Yadav, Obed McCoy, KC Cariappa, Kuldeep Sen, Abdul Basith, Kunal Singh Rathore, Akash Vasisht

Royal Challengers Bangalore Squad: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood, Kedar Jadhav, Michael Bracewell, Suyash Prabhudessai, Karn Sharma, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Deep, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Himanshu Sharma, Wayne Parnell, Manoj Bhandage, Sonu Yadav, Finn Allen, Siddarth Kaul

Score card: crex.live