High on confidence after their emphatic win over Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals would be eyeing revenge when they host Royal Challengers Bangalore in a Pepsi Indian Premier League match here tomorrow.Rajasthan are presently lying third in the standings with 10 points from eight games, where as, RCB are at the top with 12 points from nine matches.
But it is the Jaipur outfit which will be brimming with confidence ahead of tomorrow’s encounter, especially after crushing the Sunrisers by eight wickets yesterday. Australian Shane Watson has been in cracking form with the bat for Rajasthan while his compatriot James Faulkner has been deadly with the ball.
Watson and Faulkner starred for Rajasthan in their win over Sunrisers yesterday. While Faulkner picked up five wickets for 20 runs to restrict Sunrisers to 144, Watson smashed an unbeaten 98 off 53 balls to overwhelm the target with consummate ease.
At home, Rajasthan holds an invincible record so far in the tournament, winning all the four games they had played at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here. And expectedly, the Rahul Dravid-led side would fancy their chances tomorrow and would be hoping to extract revenge against RCB, who defeated Rajasthan by seven wickets when the two sides met earlier at Bangalore.
But things have changed since then for Rajasthan. Watson, who cracked a superb 101 against Chennai Super Kings earlier, has been in sublime form. He has so far amassed 273 runs from six games at an average of 54.60.
Dravid himself has led Rajasthan from the front and has been one the team’s main contributors with the bat along with young Ajinkya Rahane. If Dravid, Rahane and Watson provide solidity to Rajasthan’s batting, Brad Hodge, Dishant Yagnik and Stuart Binny provide the flamboyance needed to accelerate.
On the bowling front in left-arm pacer Faulkner, Rajasthan has a smart customer who has emerged as the highest wicket-taker so far with 16 wickets from just six games.
src: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/buoyant-rajasthan-eye-revenge-against-rcb/1108802/