IPL 2021: Manvinder Bisla predicts Kolkata Knight Riders to win against Rajasthan Royals

The eighteenth match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) is currently in progress at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Winning the toss, the Royals’ skipper Sanju Samson opted to field, speaking about how the bowlers have got assistance initially at the venue before dew plays a role and makes it easy for the chasing sides.

On a Head-to-Head count in the history of IPL of these two sides, Kolkata has been the superior side, winning 12 to Rajasthan’s 10 in 23 encounters, with one being no result. Former KKR cricketer and the CricTracker expert Manvinder Bisla reckons that the Eoin Morgan-led side will be able to take an edge over Sanju Samson and his men once again and will register their second win of the season.

Speaking at CricTracker’s live show ‘In The Air’, Bisla reckoned that Kolkata Knight Riders is not a team that should be placed as low as the seventh spot in the table. He mentioned the hitting abilities of the players like Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, and Pat Cummins. “I feel KKR tonight because they have better players. It is not a team that does not deserve to be at this position in the points table. But they have a good combination of players and I feel that they find their winning combination today,” he said.

Although toss has played a role at the venue, it was seen in the previous game that a big score on the board can still be defended at the Wankhede Stadium.

KKR, RR make some changes

Ahead of the game, both the teams made changes in their eleven as Kolkata Knight Riders brought in Shivam Mavi in place of Kamlesh Nagarkoti, while Rajasthan Royals made two changes by bringing in pacer Jayadev Unadkat and young opening batsmen Yashasvi Jaiswal in place of spinner Shreyas Gopal and Manan Vohra, respectively. Notably, Vohra has failed to make a mark in any of his four outings so far.

Both the teams have only one victory from four games so far and occupy the bottom spots in the points table. KKR is placed a spot above only due to their superior net run rate.