Rajasthan Royals were thumped by RCB on Thursday night
Rajasthan Royals were thumped by RCB on Thursday night Image Credit: PTI
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Dubai: Beleaguered Rajasthan Royals, who are stuck at the bottom of the points table, will face Kolkata Knight Riders in a crucial Indian Premier League match at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday night.

While Rajasthan have managed just one win in four matches and have the worst net run rate among all teams, their opponents KKR too have been finding the going tough. They also have one win in four games but are ahead of both Rajasthan and Punjab Kings on NRR.

KKR’s NRR could, however, have been poorer had their lower order not clicked in the last match against Chennai Super Kings.

The batting performance of Andre Russell and Pat Cummins will have given KKR a lot of confidence ahead of their match against Rajasthan.

Cummins said that the fightback against Chennai, that saw KKR recover from 31/5 to reach 202 — 18 runs short of Chennai’s total, has given the team the belief that they can come back from any position.

If KKR’s top-order batting clicks as well, then Rajasthan’s bowling outfit will find the going tough.

The Sanju Samson-led side are coming off a very poor outing against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday night. Although Rajasthan managed to put up a strong 177-run total, the performance of the bowlers let them down as they couldn’t pick up a single wicket, allowing Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli to share an unbeaten 181-run partnership and win the match by 10 wickets.

Rajasthan are missing key England players all-rounder Ben Stokes and pace bowler Jofra Archer, both of whom are out injured for the entirety of the tournament.

In their absence, the onus has been on Chris Morris and Mustafizur Rahman to perform.

Prior to the last game, batting all-rounder Liam Livingstone also left the Rajasthan camp and departed for England citing bubble fatigue.