The 16th match of the Indian Premier League season takes place in Mumbai on April 22nd, with the Royal Challengers Bangalore taking on the Rajasthan Royals. Our expert tipster is picking a win for the Royal Challengers thanks in part to their cracking start to the 2021 tournament.
Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals
22nd April
Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Live on Sky Sports Cricket
Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals Preview
We backed the Mumbai Indians in the first game of the season when they played the Royal Challengers Bangalore, and how wrong we were. Back in 2021, the RCB missed out on the play-offs, but they’re flying it so far. They beat the reigning champions and followed it up with a comfortable win over the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Glenn Maxwell looked great in the latter, picking up the player of the match award, while Virat Kohli is still in good form as well and Harshal Patel is also looking impressive after taking the first five-wicket haul of the season on opening. They’ve been promising for a while, but after their start, the Royal Challengers Bangalore look like legitimate contenders this year. On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals took the loss on opening day to the Punjab Kings. One bright spark in their squad is Sanju Samson, who was named player of the match that day despite the result, with a huge tally of 119 (63).
Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals Odds
The RCB are looking like pretty undeniable favourites in this, the 16th game of the year, coming in at a price of 10/17. The RR are underdogs at the price of 6/5. If you’re enough of a daredevil to back a draw, you’ll get wide odds of TBD, and unlike many other fixtures we have seen three no result games in this fixture. However, we still can’t recommend it due to the unlikeliness of the result in this sport.
Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rajasthan Royals Betting Tips
These sides have faced each other 23 times, and have identical win rates of 10 a piece. Bangalore swept the fixture last season, which seems like a streak that will continue. Virat Kohli hasn’t had his chance to shine yet this season, so we’re backing him for player of the match at a price of 7/1.
Virat Kohli to be player of the match – 7/1
He’s played well so far this year, but he’s been outshone by a great team of players around him. We think Virat Kohli is a good outside bet for player of the match, or top batsman where his price is 9/4.
Squads
Royal Challengers Bangalore squad
Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Navdeep Saini, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Shahbaz Ahmed, Josh Philippe, Pavan Deshpande, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Devdutt Padikkal, S. Bharat, Suyash Prabhudessai, Daniel Christian, Kyle Jamieson, Mohammed Azharuddeen, Rajat Patidar, Sachin Baby, Glenn Maxwell.
Rajasthan Royals squad
Sanju Samson , Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Manan Vohra, Anuj Rawat, Riyan Parag, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Mahipal Lomror, Shreyas Gopal, Mayank Markande, Jofra Archer, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Mustafizur Rahman, Chetan Sakariya, KC Cariappa, Liam Livingstone, Kuldip Yadav, Akash Singh.
For more betting odds on the 2021 Indian Premier League, head over to the NetBet Cricket page.
*Odds are subject to change.