RR VS KKR MATCH 70

Match 70 of the Indian T20 League is upon us and it is the final group game before the tournament moves into the playoff phase and it will be Rajasthan taking on Kolkata in Guwahati. Two teams who have for a huge part of the season looked like the top two sides but only Kolkata have been able to maintain consistency and are assured of finishing top of the points table. Rajasthan who had 8 wins from 9 games at one point and needed just a win to qualify, have now lost 4 games on the trot and although they have qualified, a top-two spot isn't a guarantee unless they win this crunch contest which could easily be a prep-encounter of Qualifier just a couple of days later. Rajasthan will be without the services of Jos Buttler as he is off for international duty and really need other batters to step up as apart from Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag no one else seems to be showing much consistency and they have scored under 150 runs in the last couple of games. Rajasthan will be hopeful that Shimron Hetmyer is fit for this contest and will expect Yashasvi Jaiswal to step out in times of need. The bowling has been pretty solid but there have been unplugged holes visible in the last few games and they need to plug those right away. Yet again, the spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin will be key but it will be interesting to see how their pacers bowl upfront. Kolkata on the other hand, are unbeaten in their last 5 games, winning 4 and one being abandoned due to rain. They too will be without their prolific opener Phil Salt but Rahmanullah Gurbaz might just come in and do the job for them. Their batting has been impressive with a couple of standouts but others have also contributed when required and it is a pretty long batting lineup too headlined by the likes of Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell and Rinku Singh. On the bowling front, their spin duo of Narine and Varun Chakaravarthy has somewhat outclassed Rajasthan's spin duo and has picked up wickets at crucial times as well. While Narine has been very economical, Varun has been able to get multiple wickets when on song. The pace attack has been pretty solid as well led by Harshit Rana but Mitchell Starc needs to be at his best if Kolkata are to actually go on and win the whole thing. Last time when these two sides met was earlier this season at the Eden Gardens where Rajasthan chased down 224 runs in a humdinger of a contest and we can expect a similar contest this time around which might not be all that high-scoring but certainly pretty close. Who are you backing for the win?