Welcome to Sportstar‘s LIVE coverage of the IPL 2022 match between RR and RCB at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. This is Santadeep Dey, bringing you all the action as it unfolds at the venue.

LIVE COMMENTARY

RAJASTHAN ROYALS INNINGS

RR 107/3 in 16 overs: Buttler and Hettie keep the scoreboard ticking with singles.

RR 103/3 in 15 overs: Hetmyer dances down the track but fails to middle a widish, back-of-a-length delivery; just a single as it rolls down to long-off. Buttler goes upstairs immediately after the umpire rules him out, leg-before. Turns out, there was an inside edge.

RR 99/3 in 14 overs: Swing and a miss from Hetmyer as Hasaranga employs the cross-seam to swerve it past the Guyanese. Hetmyer finally tees off with two back-to-back fours through the cover region.

RR 89/3 in 13 overs: Since 2018, Harshal’s economy has been lowest between overs 7-15 (7.5). He continues to do a fine job, varying his pace and length throughout the over. We will have ourselves the second timeout of the innings.

RR 86/3 in 12 overs: Hasaranga will bowl to Samson. The Sri Lanka all-rounder has had the better of the Rajasthan skipper in the IPL. In four innings, Samson has lost his wicket to Hasaranga thrice. Tonked! Samson goes downtown as Hasaranga loops one up and gets it to land right in the batter’s arc. Wicket! Samson lobs a length delivery right back to the bowler. 4/5 now.

RR 80/2 in 11 overs: Akash Deep is mixing up his deliveries well to confuse Samson, who has just walked in. Just four runs come off this over.

RR 76/2 in 10 overs: Harshal, RCB’s designated death-overs specialist, has been brought on early. A slower 113kph bouncer has been called a wide. He goes round the wicket at Padikkal and the ploy works wonders. This was bowled fuller and Padikkal went for the wild one-handed swipe. Kohli had all the time to settle underneath the skier at mid-off.

RR 73/1 in 9 overs: Hasaranga has been introduced into the attack. Buttler hits the 100th six of his IPL career. Shimmies down the track and dispatches it 90m deep into the stands at midwicket. With that, we head into the strategic timeout.

RR 61/1 in 8 overs: Willey bowls out. Padikkal tucks off his hips for one. Length on the stump to Buttler and he pulls it to fine leg for one more. FOUR! This is short but too straight and Padikkal pulls it to the square leg boundary. Siraj puts in a forward dive in the deep but it still short. That brings up the fifty for RR in 7.3 overs. Two singles follow. SIX! Too full and Padikkal muscles it down the ground and just over the long on fence.

RR 47/1 in 7 overs: Dropped! Buttler drives straight back to the bowler and it went through Akash’s hands for a single. Padikkal is beaten again outside off trying to drive. Dropped! Buttler survives twice in the same over. He hacks across the line and gets a top-edge that goes high up into the night sky and Willey drops it at deep square leg. SIX! Buttler gets the meat of the bat on this one and hammers this slot ball outside off over long off. A couple more to end the over after Buttler pushes a length ball through the covers.

RR 35/1 in 6 overs: Buttler swipes this length ball on the stumps to short fine leg for one. Padikkal opens his face to guide this behind point but a brilliant save inside the circle allows just one. Full on Buttler’s pads and he flicks to mid wicket for one more. Two singles and a dot to end the over.

RR 30/1 in 5 overs: Akash Deep into the attack. Buttler punches off the backfoot to mid off for a quick single. Beaten! Akash angles it across to Padikkal on a length and moves it away to beat his outside edge. Short of length on leg and Padikkal tucks it off his hips for a couple. Padikkal slashes wildly outside off and is beaten. Tucked off his pads again for two more. This one is angled across again to the left-hander and some movement off the pitch beats him again outside off.

RR 25/1 in 4 overs: Beaten! Willey moves the ball sharply away on a length outside off and beats Padikkal. Length drifting down leg this time and Padikkal misses the flick and hares for one leg-bye. Angling across to Buttler, in the channel outside off and beats Buttler’s innocuous prod outside off. Buttlers whips this off his pads and Anuj Rawat lets the ball through his legs at mid wicket to allow a couple of runs. One more for Buttler at mid wicket off the inside half of the bat. Four! Length in the channel again and Padikkal gets a thick outside edge on the checked drive and it beats the man at short third and races away to the rope.

RR 17/1 in 3 overs: Siraj starts off with a wide down leg. There is a leg-before appeal for Buttler’s wicket off the second ball. However, the ump isn’t interested. SIX! Padikkal opens his account in style. A half-volley onto the pads, which Padikkal has wristed into the stands.

RR 6/1 in 2 overs: Willey to bowl. There is a short third man, stationed very fine. Jaiswal and Buttler are very quick between the wickets, converting the ones into twos. Beaten; Jaiswal has to be a bit cautious before going for the inside out shot against Willey. Bowled! Jaiswal plays for the swing. However, Willey gets this one to hold its line.

RR 2/0 in 1 over: Bowled seam-up, there is a bit of movement away from the right-handed Buttler on strike. As the Englishman gets off the mark with a single, he just manages to pip Ishan Kishan on the Orange Cap leaderboard. Jaiswal picks up a single off the final ball as well.

Umpires Saiyed Khalid and Anil Chaudhary make their way to the middle. Buttler and Jaiswal to open the batting. Siraj has the new ball in hand.

PLAYING XI

Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (wk/c), Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal

Royal Challengers Bangalore:: Faf du Plessis (c), Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, David Willey, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj

WHAT THE CAPTAINS SAID

Sanju Samson: It looks like a completely different surface to the ones we played in the last few games. We should all take care of our own roles and try to win the small moments. We will be playing the same team.

Faf du Plessis: We’ll bowl. The pitch doesn’t look very different, so we’ll have to see what the dew does. The fact that pleases me is that we hung in in the last game. It gives a lot of confidence to the group. Even though you aren’t playing at your best, it is pleasing. We are unchanged.

TOSS

Royal Challengers Bangalore opts to bowl.

Captains Sanju Samson (RR) and Faf d Plessis (RCB) during the toss.   –  IPL

PITCH REPORT

“This pitch has a lot lesser grass on it. It is very hard. It isn’t something we have seen with the pitches here so far. The batsmen are in for a little bit of a treat today although the bowlers will still look to stick to the hard lengths. Expect a score of over 160,” says Matthew Hayden.

RR vs RCB DREAM11 FANTASY LEAGUE PREDICTION

Wicketkeeper: Jos Buttler (c), Sanju Samson, Anuj Rawat

Batters: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis, Devdutt Padikkal

All-rounders: Wanindu Hasaranga (vc), Shahbaz Ahmed

Bowlers: Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Prasidh Krishna

Team Composition: RR 5: 6 RCB, Credits left: 0.0

RCB VS RR PREDICTED XI

Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (c) (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, David Willey, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep.

Unavailable Players: Glenn Maxwell (RCB), Josh Hazlewood (RCB), Jason Behrendorff (RCB)

RR vs RCB MATCH PREVIEW

Forty-eight hours after the battle of ‘Kings’ at the Brabourne Stadium, a ‘royal battle’ will take place at the Wankhede Stadium when an in-form Rajasthan Royals take on Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday.

Much against the trend seen in this edition of the Indian Premier League, Royals posted two wins by defending targets, against former champion Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians. This underlines the Royals’ belief in the quality of their resources.

In contrast, the Challengers have gone with the tide – lost the toss and the match against Punjab Kings by five wickets and won the toss and the game against Kolkata Knight Riders by three wickets.

READ |
IPL 2022: Hazlewood unlikely to be available for RCB before April 12 game

Notably for the Royals, except the Kiwi Trent Boult, all bowling options are home-grown internationals –  Prasidh Krishna, Navdeep Saini, R. Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal.

With Jos Buttler making his presence felt with a 100 against Mumbai Indians, and the duo of Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer contributing, the failure of Devdutt Paddikkal was lost in the background. Overall, going by the balance of the teams, Royals is the early favourite to go all the way.

An unconvincing Challengers’ lone win in two matches came after the side’s bowlers set it up in a low-scoring encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders. It was indeed a great comeback for the bowlers after looking so ineffective in the defence of 205 in the opener against Punjab
Kings. Against the Royals, the Challengers will have to raise the bar a few notches to pose a threat.

– Rakesh Rao

RR vs RCB KEY PLAYERS

RR vs RCB STATS

H2H: Overall matches: 25, RCB won: 12, RR won: 10, NR: 2, AB: 1

HS (RCB) vs RR: 200/7

LS (RCB) vs RR: 70/10

HS (RR) vs RCB: 217/4

LS (RR) vs RCB: 58/10

Last 5 games H2H: RCB: 4, RR: 1

Last H2H: RCB won by seven wickets, RR 149/9 (20) – 153/3 (17.1) RCB

RR vs RCB SQUADS

Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Prasidh Krishna, Karun Nair, James Neesham, Rassie van der Dussen, KC Cariappa, Daryl Mitchell, Obed McCoy, Tejas Baroka, Kuldip Yadav, Anunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Dhruv Jurel, Shubham Garhwal

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, Sherfane Rutherford, Shahbaz Ahmed, David Willey, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Siddarth Kaul, Karn Sharma, Chama V Milind, Rajat Patidar, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Suyash Prabhudessai, Aneeshwar Gautam

WHERE TO WATCH IPL 2022 LIVE?

All IPL 2022 matches will be broadcast live on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 3, and Star Sports 3 HD channels in India. Disney+ Hotstar is the official live streaming partner.