Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals IPL Tips: Royals on the brink of spectacular exit

• RCB favs at 1.814/5

• Losing side will exit the competition

• Take a chance on 9/1 Jurel

• Read about Ed's Betfair Exchange strategy below

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals
Wednesday 20 May, 15:00
TV: Live on Sky Sports

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals team news

Bangalore have lost the services of Will Jacks and Reece Topley (although he was out of the side anyway) but they show no sign of slowing. It's six wins in a row and counting. Glenn Maxwell is lurking in the middle-order now in an attempt to take off the pressure off the Aussie. Swapnil Singh is the perfectly-named impact player as an all-rounder

Probable XI: Kohli, du Plessis, Patidar/Swapnil (subs), Green, Maxwell, Karthik, Lomror, Dayal, Karn Sharma, Siraj, Ferguson

Rajasthan may be wise to dispense with the services of Tom Kohler-Cadmore as opener. This is to time to be feeling your way into the tournament. Trying the likes of Druv Jurel, Ravi Ashwin or Donovan Ferreira as a blaster up front would be an admission of frail batting confidence but they need to do something.

Possible XI: Jaiswal, Kohler-Cadmore, Samson, Parag, Ashwin, Jurel, Ferreira/Maharaj (subs), Boult, Avesh, Chahal, Sandeep

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals pitch report

Sunrisers' collapse against Kolkata at Ahmedabad on Tuesday may have been down to the brilliance of Mitchell Starc and Sunrisers' relentless pursuit of carnage than anything untoward at ground level. It was only the previous game when Gujarat smashed 231. Royals would much prefer a flat one so their batters can play with freedom one suspects and the par line is as low at 188.5 to reflect that.

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Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals match prediction

Only the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the IPL can explain how RCB can lose six in a row and then win six in a row. And Royals, previously so assured, to suddenly collapse and get beat four straight.

RCB, then, are favourites and that seems fair. They are now the best batting side in the middle and death overs in terms of strike rate. One suspects they merely need to bat first here and get upwards of 190 and scoreboard pressure should account for that Royals flaky batting.

A golden rule of IPL is to only bet Bangalore at odds-against so we will once again - just like against Chennai - hope for 2.1011/10 in-play.

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals Exchange strategy

Not surprisingly, Royals have to bat first, then. There could well be a trade on if they do so with a flip of the odds by the break. Doubts may persist about RCB's ability to keep things tight.

Otherwise you may be able to rely on those RCB batting metrics from 7-15 and 16-20 for big runs. Certainly on the latter period there could be decent numbers adding 60, 65, 70. If they are chasing then expect them to to take it to the wire.

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals player bets

Jurel and Ashwin have both opened in T20 previously. Jurel is 9/110.00 and may have more appeal than Ashwin at 10/111.00. For RCB, Kohli has been cut to 15/82.88. Kohli hit 113 of 72 in the previous meeting this term, an innings which was derided for being too slow. It does seem like he has listened to the critics.

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