IPL 2024: Predicting 3 players who could pick up the most wickets in today's RCB vs RR Eliminator

These are the IPL playoffs. As seen in Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)'s demolishing of SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the first Qualifier on Tuesday, who you are and what you have done in the group stage hardly matters here.

Sunil Narine wasn't conceding boundaries but was smacked for countless sixes. Mitchell Starc wasn't getting swing on the ball but picked up three wickets within the powerplay, including that of Travis Head, SRH's best batter, for a duck.

So even if RCB won just one of their first eight games and are on a six-match winning hot streak and RR haven't won a game in May, this match remains as predictable as any.

We have tried to narrow it down for you, though, by picking three players who we think can snap the most wickets in the match:

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#3 Trent Boult

If RR have to avoid getting eliminated from the Eliminator, they'll need a good performance from the bowler best suited for the conditions here - Trent Boult. We saw more swing than most games in IPL 2024 in the first Qualifier and Mitchell Starc and Vaibhav Arora used that to take four wickets in no time.

Boult can have a similar impact. For all their improvement in the powerplay, RCB's batters, including Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, and Rajat Patidar remain susceptible to left-arm pace. Boult also has an excellent record against RCB, picking up 16 wickets in 12 matches at an average of 24.31. Moreover, in three matches in Ahmedabad, the Kiwi left-armer has never gone wicketless.

Combine his new-ball skills with the fact that Ahmedabad will also support his cutters and slower ones in the slog overs, and you've got a good wicket-taking prospect.

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#2 Yash Dayal

Regarding swing, hardly anyone has been better than Yash Dayal in IPL 2024. The left-arm quick's clinical wicket-taking ability in the powerplay, matched by his consistency at the death, makes him such a threatening option for any opposition. He has 15 wickets in 13 games at an average of 28.13 and five of those have come in the last two games when RCB have needed them the most.

In the last match against RR, he took the wicket of Riyan Parag in a losing cause. This time, he could be one of RCB's best options against Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal, who have had their share of problems against swing.

If he gets an opening into the middle order, which has been RR's worst aspect of late, several wickets might tumble very soon.

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#1 Mohammed Siraj

There's another swing proficient in RCB bowler who can get Dayal that opening. In 10 matches against RR, he has picked up as many wickets at an average of 29.10. Samson, Jaiswal, and Ravichandran Ashwin have all been his victims in these games and thanks to the consistency and pace he has found recently in IPL 2024, you can't rule out a big wicket-taking spell at the top of the order.

The Asia Cup final last year and multiple Test matches in recent years have witnessed that Siraj + high-pressure game + swing is a lethal combination for the opponents.

If RCB come out with a win to play the second Qualifier against SRH, it would almost certainly have a big Siraj contribution behind it.