IPL 2023 Predictions: RR vs LSG

Rajasthan Royals will take on Lucknow Super Giants in the 26th game of the Indian Premier League 2023 on Wednesday (April 19) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.

These two teams have met twice in the history of IPL so far, where Rajasthan Royals managed to win both games.

Rajasthan Royals have won four of their five games in this tournament so far, and are at the topmost position on the points table, with 8 points and a net run rate of +1.354.

Super Giants have won three out of five games and are in second place in the points table. They have 6 points and a net run rate of +0.761.

However, they lost their previous game against Punjab Kings.

LSG could make only 159 runs despite a fighting half century by KL Rahul.

For Punjab, Sam Curran picked up three wickets for 31 runs in four overs and Sikandar Raza scored his maiden IPL half-century to guide the team to a victory by two wickets.

Raza won the Player of the Match award for this performance.

Rahul has not really fired in IPL 2023. He has scored 155 runs so far at an average of 31 and a strike rate of 113.13, with one fifty.

However, he is improving fast and could be the key batter against Rajasthan.

Yudhvir Singh took the center stage with the ball in the last match and took 2 wickets in his quota of 3 overs and gave only 19 runs.

Ayush Badoni has been disappointing, having managed just 76 runs for the Super Giants in 4 innings.

Mark Wood, the right-arm fast bowler from LSG has hit stride and bagged 11 wickets in this tournament so far.

Another key player for LSG is right-arm leg-break bowler, Ravi Bishnoi who has 8 wickets in his kitty already.

Jos Buttler is the leading run-scorer for the Rajasthan Royals.

He has made 204 runs in five games at an average of 40.8 and a strike rate of 163.2.

Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer played a significant role in RR’s victory against GT as they scored a match-winning 60 and 56 runs in the run chase.

Meanwhile, Sandeep Sharma picked two wickets for the Rajasthan-based team in their first innings and has 4 wickets overall.

Sawai Mansingh Stadium’s surface is bowler-friendly, providing plenty of help to both pacers and spinners.

The team batting second has a terrific record at this venue, and the team winning the toss will most likely choose to chase. The average first-innings score on this wicket is 160 runs.

Rajasthan Royals XI

Yashasvi Jaiswal, R Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jos Buttler, SV Samson(C), DC Jurel, Trent Boult, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Sharma, A Zampa

Lucknow Super Giants XI

KL Rahul(C), MP Stoinis, Kyle Mayers, Quinton de Kock, KH Pandya, A Badoni, Nicholas Pooran(wk), Mark Wood, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi, Yudhvir Singh

Who will win

LSG have posted totals higher than 200 on two occasions this season but they have also scored less than 160 two times.

This inconsistency hands RR the edge, who have made at least 170 runs in all of their innings in 2023.

LSG’s batters like Deepak Hooda and Ayush Badoni have not stepped up which is worrying.

RR also have adequate batting resources required to ensure their run chase is achievable, should they bat second.

Hence our experts feel RR will emerge winners.