Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals IPL Tips: Royals to return to form

• Take on RCB at odds-on

• Buttler boosted

• Du Plessis consistent

Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals
Sunday 22 April, 11:00
TV: Live on Sky Sports

Team news

Bangalore enjoyed a comfortable victory over Punjab last time out but Virat Kohli's go-slow caused concern. Kohli reckons it's a good idea to drop the rate after the powerplay to, basically, preserve his wicket. It's ego over team and it won't end well, just like every previous IPL season.

Possible XII: Kohli, Du Plessis, Lomror, Maxwell, Karthik, Shahbaz, Prabhudessai, Hasaranga, Harshal, Parnell, Siraj, Vyshak

Rajasthan are going well but they do have a problem. Their middle-order is looking weak with Riyan Parag and Dev Padikkal struggling. The former produced a shocker in a tight chase against Lucknow. the upshot, surely, is that both can't play and they may have to sacrifice an overseas (Jason Holder or Trent Boult) to find room for Donovan Ferreira ( afinisher oc repute) or Joe Root.

Possible XII: Jaiswal, Buttler, Samson, Paddikal, Hetmyer, Ferreira, Jurel, Ashwin, Sandeep, Boult, Chahal, Saini

Pitch report

More than 200 has been busted twice in four games at Bangalore and we should expect heavy runmaking again. The pre-tournament first-innings average was 181. The Royals average 9.1 per over with the bat and RCB conede an average of 9.2 with the ball. A par line of around 182.5 for them is an overs bet.

How to play

With RCB winning last time out and Royals losing, the timing is right for punters. The match odds market can't quite work out who should win. That's fantastic news.

We think Royals are vastly superior to Bangalore and the 2.01/1 available is something of a gift. We expect Royals to return to form and continue their march to the play-offs, particularly if they make changes to their XI.

One of the golden rules of IPL is taking on RCB at odds-on and it's terrific that we can do that against a side as good as Royals.

Tops value

Jos Buttler has been boosted to 13/5 for top Royals bat and we know that's a bet on how often he wins (he statred the tournament at evens on two-year form). For RCB, Faf Du Plessis is Mr Consistent but it's a shame it's Kohli that's been boosted instead. Kohli is not a bet at 11/5. Faf is also 13/5.