RR, KKR eye first win in IPL 2025: Preview
What's the story
The sixth match of the IPL 2025 will see Rajasthan Royals (RR) take on Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati.
The much-awaited match is scheduled to be played on March 26.
Both teams would be looking to register their first win after suffering defeats in their respective opening games.
Here we present the match preview.
Details
Pitch report and streaming details
Barsapara Stadium's pitch is generally on the slower side.
It is usually a batting strip, and we can expect another high-scoring affair.
Bowling under the lights will be tough, with dew likely to play a major role at this venue.
Star Sports will telecast the match, fans can also live-stream it on the JioHotstar app or website (7:30pm IST).
RR vs KKR
Losing start for both teams
Rajasthan Royals lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 33 runs. Chasing a mammoth 287, Dhruv Jurel and Sanju Samson displayed their fighting spirit by scoring 70 and 66 runs respectively.
Meanwhile, Kolkata Knight Riders lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru by seven wickets.
Ajinkya Rahane was their highest scorer with a brilliant knock of 56 runs. Sunil Narine put up an all-round show.
Rivalry
Head-to-head record and pitch conditions
The rivalry between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders is neck to neck,
The head-to-head record cannot separate the two teams as it reads 14-14 (including Super Over games).
One of their matches got abandoned. The two teams played just one conclusive game last season and RR claimed a thrilling two-wicket triumph in that fixture.
Team line-ups
Predicted playing XI for both teams
RR (Predicted playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag (c), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Shubham Dubey, Shimron Hetmyer, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Tushar Deshpande, Sandeep Sharma, Fazalhaq Farooqi.
KKR (Predicted playing XI): Quinton de Kock (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Spencer Johnson, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Impact subs: Sanju Samson and Vaibhav Arora.
Stats
Here are the key players
With 400 runs across 17 games, Sanju Samson is the leading run-scorer in IPL games between RR and KKR.
Sunil Narine made a fiery 109 off 56 balls against RR last year. That was Narine's maiden T20 hundred.
Ajinkya Rahane scored a fiery half-century in the season opener. Dhruv Jurel scored a brilliant 70 vs SRH though his efforts went in vain.