Victory and defeat inspire contrasting emotions, but both can motivate in their own ways.Rajasthan Royals have won all three encounters against their Sunday opponents — the Kings Eleven Punjab — so far here at the Sawai Man Singh stadium in the Pink City.
It gives them a slight advantage going into the tie and they would look to march on. But statistics could be of no use as IPl mantra goes it's the team that plays well on the given day wins.
Therefore Punjab, on the other hand, would aim to break the Jaipur-jinx and hope for a reversal of fortunes.
"Hopefully, we can change our past record here tomorrow. The curator has prepared a nice wicket which will offer a lot of runs. It's all about of the conditions here and return to winning ways. Rajasthan is a strong team and they play well at home," Punjab coach Darrel lehmann told reporters at the pre-match press conference on the eve of the match.
We had a great first game and our performance was poor against CSK (Chennai Super Kings). I believe we got to be more consistent," he added.
And, what is common to both teams will be is the will to get back to winning ways after a loss each. While Royals, surprisingly, lost to Pune Warriors, the Kings suffered a 10-wicket defeat at the hands of CSK. Batsmen for both sides had failed to capitalize on starts which meant bowlers did weren't given enough runs to play with.
Hosts Royals, who have won two matches out of three, would rely on former Indian no 3 Rahul Dravid to provide solidarity with the other batsmen revolving around him. The classy right-hander has shown form of yore scoring two quick fifties and the way the 39-year old was piercing the gaps against medium-pacers in the game against Pune was exemplary.
He has persuaded one and all to continue faith in classical batsmanship. Taking a cue from the master craftsman is young opener Ajinkya Rahane, who will be eager to make a big score after missing out on a couple of good starts.
Their middle-order is a combination of youth and experience in the veteran Australian Brad Hodge, Dishant Yagnik, Stuart Binny and Kevon Cooper but good partnerships are missing.
They kept losing wickets in the game at Pune and skipper Dravid had mentioned about batting failure which led to the loss.Shane Watson had missed the previous game and he is expected to return to the side for the match."Rahul Dravid is in very good form and he is our best batsman as well.
And hopefully, he continues scoring like that and may be the rest of the guys can bat around him. In the last game, we lost wickets at crucial junctures and we were 20 runs light.
In T20 20 runs can make a huge difference. So, the middle-order needs to build partnerships and not throw their wickets easily. We should try and get those 20 more runs and take it to 170.
Score of 170 is a match-winning score here and generally with that score, one should win on nine occasions out of 10," Rajasthan Royals' Owais Shah said.
Royals' bowling too had taken a hit against PWI and the likes of - Cooper, Siddharth Trivedi, S Sreesanth, would want to make amends.
It will not be a surprise if Royals change their five pace-bowlers strategy which they had rolled out during the game against Kolkata Knight Riders in Jaipur, considering that Punjab's captain Adam Gilchrist and David Hussey play pacers well.
The visitors can take heart from the fact that they have proven T20 specialists in Hussey, all-rounder Azhar Mahmood and Ryan Harris who have the experience with them.Get ready for a nail biting contest.