Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) lock horns with Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) as Faf Du Plessis won the toss and elected to bowl first in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024's clash at the Eden Gardens stadium in April 21. Both the teams are coming from defeats in their respective previous encounters. While RCB suffered defeat against SRH, KKR went down to RR.
Faf Du Plessis made three changes to RCB's playing XI as Cameroon Green, Mohammed Siraj and Mayank Dagar came back to the fold. Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer didn't tinker with KKR's Playing XI.
What did the captains say?
After losing the toss KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer:
“Last afternoon game here, we know how the wicket plays, we would have loved to bowl as well. It's stiflingly hot and we'll look to make them as tired as possible. We've tried to keep things simple, it's not about how you start, it's about how you end, just stick to the basics. We are playing the same team. It's important to assess the conditions, execute our plans, then it'll go in our favour.”
Meanwhile, RCB captain Faf du Plessis after winning the toss said:
“We will chase. This is probably a chasing ground, always has been. I'm a fan of abetting first when it'[s really hot, but the temperature did drop after an hour or so yesterday, unlike in Mumbai or Chennai where it stays very hot. The batting is so strong that a general score or 60-70 isn't considered great. We have three changes - Green and Siraj come back, so does Mayank Dagar. We know if we do a few things back, the momentum can be back and we do have the firepower.”
Royal Challengers Bengaluru's Playing XI
Faf du Plessis(c), Virat Kohli, Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik(w), Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Yash Dayal, Mohammed Siraj.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Subs: Suyash Prabhudessai, Anuj Rawat, Himanshu Sharma, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Swapnil Singh
Kolkata Knight Riders' Playing XI
Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana
Kolkata Knight Riders Subs: Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Rahmanullah Gurbaz
Head-to-Head
In the IPL, Bangalore and Kolkata have played against each other 33 times. Among these encounters, Bangalore has emerged victorious in 14 matches, while Kolkata has triumphed 19 times.
Pitch Report
“This is an afternoon game and that changes the dynamics completely. One short boundary at 61m, the other side is at 66m, the straight boundary is 73m long. It's very hot at 43 degrees and the pitch will suffer because of that, it's very dry. Most of the pitch looks even and flat, but there's one big chunk where it's extremely dry, the grass has been removed. It's around the spinner's length and they could exploit the patches. Otherwise, this pitch has plenty of runs on offer. With this heat, the captain winning the toss should opt to bat first,” Graeme Swann and Sanjay Manjrekar analysed the pitch.
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