Royals v Punjab Kings Predictions & Stats: Will Stokes set the 2021 IPL on fire?

Match: Rajasthan Royals v Punjab Kings

Date: 12th March 2021

Time: 7.30 PM India

Stadium: Wankhede Stadium

What you will find on this preview

Trends & Recent Form

Match 4 of the IPL sees the Royals take on the newly named Punjab Kings (formerly Kings 11 Punjab). The Royals will be without star bowlers Jofra Archer for the whole tournament after hand surgery from an injury sustained while cleaning his fish tank!

Rajasthan Royals form

Position: 8th of 8

Record:

Played: 14
Won: 6
Lost: 8
Net Run Rate: -0.569

Top players

Top Batsman: Sanju Samson

Total runs: 375
Average: 28.84
High score: 85

Top Bowler: Jofra Archer

Total wickets: 20
Total overs: 55.4
Economy: 6.55
Best figures: 3/19

"The loss of Archer is a big blow for the Royals. Their bowling attack is okay but any team would be better with Archer in it. I think they could be bottom again this year."

Arjun Reddy

Head of Indian Cricket Content

Latest stats and trends

Sanju Samson will captain the team for the 2021 IPL. He performed well in 2020 and looks set for a big tournament.
We suspect that Ben Stokes will play more as an out and out batsman rather than an all-rounder. There is a strong possibility he could open the batting with fellow Englishman Jos Buttler.
We are predicting that the Royals will have some high scoring games. The team is heavily weighted in the batting department and will concede a lot of runs with the ball. The overs betting markets could be interesting.
The Royals went big in the auction for bowler Chris Morris who will be critical to any chance of making the playoffs in Archer’s absence. It is likely that teams will just try and bat through his 4 overs and target the other bowlers for runs.

Punjab Kings form

Position: 6th of 8

Record:

Played: 14
Won: 6
Lost: 8
Net Run Rate: -0.162

Top players

Top Batsman: KL Rahul

Total runs: 670
Average: 55.83
High score: 132*

Top Bowler: Mohammad Shami

Total wickets: 20
Total overs: 53.4
Economy: 8.57
Best figures: 3/15

"The Kings have bought well in 2021, the challenge will be selecting the best 11 and getting the order right. KL Rahul should be the star batsman but his form has dipped recently."

Arjun Reddy

Head of Indian Cricket Content

Latest stats and trends

Punjab Kings bought well in the IPL auction and have a good squad. The addition of Dawid Malwan is excellent for this team – he’s currently rated as the top T20 batsman in the world.
The form of KL Rahul will be interesting to see, he’s not been at his best for India in the recent tour and there will be a lot of attention on his game.
We are predicting the Punjab Kings will finish bottom of the group.
The odds for both teams are the same meaning they are expecting a tight game between these two teams.

Head to head stats

2020 results

Match 9: Royals won by 4 wickets
Match 50: Royals won by 7 wickets

Overall

Punjab wins: 9
Rajasthan wins: 12

Match Prediction & Tips

Match Prediction: Rajasthan Royals to win at 10/11*

The Royals had the edge on the Kings in both of the IPL matches in 2020. Although they are missing Archer their batting line up is very impressive.

We are expecting a very high scoring game here and we could see some fireworks with the players that are involved.

Pick 1: Ben Stokes to hit the most match sixes 8/1*

Stokes is an explosive IPL player and we are expecting to see him bat 3rd at the latest. He has been in excellent form on the Indian wickets and will be looking to get off to a quick start.

In the IPL 2020, he missed the first few games due to the illness of his father. With some good performances further up the order, he could be in with a shout for the top tournament batsman in 2021.

Pick 2: A boundary to be hit from every ball in 1 over 20/1

The odds on this with Betway really caught our eye. Both teams are blessed with talented batsman and this is a good possibility at these odds.

*Odds & Responsible gambling

All odds that appear are subject to change at any time. They are correct as stated at the time of publishing the article and are taken from various betting sites in India.

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