IPL 2019: Virat Kohli, Jofra Archer face-off in RR vs RCB

Virat Kohli

Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the only two teams yet to win a game in the 2019 IPL, will be desperate to outdo each other in a clash of strugglers at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium on Tuesday.

Both teams have been more than disappointing thus far in the IPL and need a win to revive their respective campaigns.

Royals have failed to tighten the screws when it mattered most. In all three matches, they were in a good position but could not grab the moments, losing to Kings XI Punjab, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings respectively.

In Chennai on Sunday, Royals had CSK reeling at 27 for three before skipper M S Dhoni smashed an unbeaten 75 off 46 balls to bail the hosts out of trouble and eventually win the game by eight runs.
"We win as a team and we lose as a team. If we win the smaller moments in T20s we will do well.

We have played well in the last three games and hopefully with some luck we'll be able to turn it around," said Royals skipper Ajinkya Rahane after the loss against CSK.

Royals, who boast of star players such as Steve Smith and Ben Stokes, have failed to live up to the expectations.

In the first match against Kings XI Punjab, Royals' bowlers allowed the visitors to some vital runs in death overs and later the batsmen disappointed after being put on victory course by Rahane and Jos Buttler.

The same story has as batting and bowling units have failed to perform in tandem.

The likes of Sanju Samson, who had hit first ton of this IPL, Buttler and Rahane have been good. Rahul Tripathi also looked impressive during his 39 against CSK but Smith and Stokes are yet to set the tournament on fire.

The hosts face an equally hungry outfit in RCB, who too are looking to redeem themselves. Their skipper Virat Kohli had conceded that the defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday afternoon was "one of their worst losses".

"We just need our players to put up a better challenge up front. There are still 11 games to go. The pitch will be nice in Jaipur against the Royals. We need to bring our A-game, like we did against Mumbai and play with that kind of intensity," said Kohli after RCB's third loss in a row.

The visitors certainly have the resources in their ranks to beat Royals.RCB have a destructive batting order comprising Kohli, AB de Villiers, Parthiv Patel, Moeen Ali and Shimron Hetmyer, yet their batting failed miserably in two out of the three games.

King Googlyan is also back in the house and ahead of the Terrific Tuesday match, the royal lemur sheds some light on what he thinks is the reason for Ashwin mankading Jos Buttler in Rajasthan Royals' IPL 2019 opener.

Coming back to the match at hand, Both Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore will also have to deal with the soaring heat in the Pink City with temperatures nearing 40 degrees celsius.

In a fun chat, Rajasthan Royals batsman Steve Smith has an interesting suggestion on who skipper Ajinkya Rahane can use as a bowling option:

Squads:
Rajasthan Royals: Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Ashton Turner, Ish Sodhi, Oshane Thomas, Liam Livingstone, Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Shubham Ranjane, Stuart Binny, Shreyas Gopal, Sudhesan Midhun, Jaydev Unadkat, Prashant Chopra, Mahipal Lomror, Aryaman Birla, Riyan Parag, Dhawal Kulkarni, Krishnappa Gowtham, Varun Aaron, Shashank Singh, Manan Vohra, Rahul Tripathi

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Virat Kohli, Parthiv Patel, Moeen Ali, AB de Villiers, Shimron Hetmyer, Shivam Dube, Colin de Grandhomme, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Devdutt Padikkal, Himmat Singh, Milind Kumar, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Heinrich Klaasen, Pawan Negi, Washington Sundar, Akshdeep Nath, Prayas Barman, Kulwant Khejroliya, Tim Southee.

Head to Head:

The key battle to watch out for: Virat Kohli vs Jofra Archer

Virat Kohli: Virat Kohli has broken many records in the past couple of years, clean-sweeped all ICC awards in the latest edition of the event. Virat Kohli also has the biggest World Cup of his cricket career coming up in the next 2 months and the start of the IPL 2019 has been a dampener for the world's best batsman. It is desperate times now after 3 losses in the first 3 matches and Virat Kohli will be looking to take matters in his own hands to take RCB over the line against Rajasthan Royals.

Jofra Archer: The Barbadian born English all-rounder has impressed with his pace and variations while bowling at the death. He has also established himself as a partnership-breaker so far in the IPL. So in a must-win situation against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rajasthan Royals will be banking on Jofra Archer's abilities to halt a determined Virat Kohli at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

Here is what the fans have to say about the big game:

Also Read: IPL 2019: Can't afford one more loss, says Ben Stokes

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