Preview RCB vs RR IPL 2021, Match 15, April 22nd, Wankhede Stadium. RCB vs RR head to head player stats and records. Team news and match predictions for RCB vs RR.
Key match stats RCB vs RR preview
Venue Stats – Wankhede Stadium
- Average first innings: 167
- Average first innings winning score: 173
- Average powerplay score: 46
- All-time win % batting 1st vs batting 2nd: 47% / 52%
Find full venue stats and records here
Team form RCB vs RR preview
- RCB – WWW
- RR – LWL
- Previous meetings: IPL 2020, RCB won by 8 wickets, RCB won by 7 wickets
IPL 2021 RCB vs RR preview
RCB come into this match riding the wave of 3 straight victories on the difficult spinning tracks of Chennai and come up against a Royals side that has struggled for consistency in both disciplines. While it’s a little bit early to talk about playoff places, RCB know that a 4th win would probably take them to half the points required to make the final 4 with 10 matches still to play. Equally, having put together such a good start, Kohli’s team will be desperate to reach the top 2 and take the easier route to the final. To do so will mean dispatching tonight’s opposition with relative ease.
The Royals squad had a few holes in it before the tournament began but as they are now being beset by injuries to key players they really do look a little short on quality when compared to the majority of other franchise in IPL 2021 and you do fear that this could be quite a long season for the men in pink.
RCB’s recent form has been based off some remarkable efforts at the back end of innings. Harshal Patel has an economy rate of under a run a ball at the death, the best of any bowler to have bowled 20 or more deliveries in the last 5 overs. While AB de Villiers has made hitting in the final phase of the game look easy despite everyone else struggling to do so in Chennai. Of course as we move onto Wankhede where runs have flowed far more easily at the death, then we wait to see what RCB might be able to achieve with their powerful middle order. See full death over stats for IPL 2021
RCB vs RR head to head player stats
RCB bowling vs RR batting
RCB have deployed 3 spinners in their opening 3 games of the tournament but it’s likely that they will tweak that balance against the Royals given that the slower bowlers have generally struggled to make an impact at the Wankhede. Indeed, RCB went into their last game with just 3 overseas players but they may look to bring back one of the Australia duo of Dan Christian or Daniel Sams to bolster their bowling options today.
Unfortunately for the Royals, new captain Sanju Samson seems to have settled into a familiar routine of brilliance one day followed by abject failures for the next few matches. Given the aforementioned injury crisis, the Royals really need their main man to deliver on a more consistent basis and in this game he comes up against something of a nemesis in the form of RCB’s Chahal.
In fact, none of the Royals batsmen can point to having particularly good head to head records against the RCB bowling attack but one of the other key contests will of course involve Jos Buttler. The opener did find some form in the previous match against CSK before a brilliant piece of bowling from Ravi Jadeja ended Buttler’s innings and the Royals hopes of chasing down the total. Casting our minds back to last month, there was a fairly heated exchange between Kohli and Buttler during one of the T20i matches so we’ll wait to see if that has calmed down in the intervening period but even if it has you can bet that RCB will go hard at the England star who alongside Samson is really the Royals only hope.
RR bowling vs RCB batting
Kohli’s move to open for RCB hasn’t thus far paid dividends on a personal level albeit that his side has won their opening 3 games. However, the star batsman has an excellent record at the Wankhede as shown below and might just be ready to begin moving up the scoring charts with a big innings here
Of course if you are facing the Royals at the moment then the real question to ask is how do you match-up against left-arm bowling because RR have played 3 of them in their last couple of games.
| Batsman | Average vs left arm fast medium | Strike rate vs left arm fast medium |
| D Padikkal | 30.0 | 142.9 |
| V Kohli | 24.9 | 132.7 |
| AB de Villiers | 49.8 | 167.1 |
| G Maxwell | 30.5 | 160.5 |
As we can see, Kohli’s head to head record against left-armers in the IPL is pretty poor compared to his career stats and RR will be desperate to continue that trend in this fixture.
Shreyas Gopal is a man who has caused RCB all sorts of trouble in IPL meetings between these 2 in previous years. Given his head to head record against Kohli (3 dismissals) and de Villiers (4 dismissals), might RR consider recalling him for this match?
All IPL player head to head records can be found here
