Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) lock horns with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bowl first in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 clash at M Chinnaswamy stadium on March 29, Saturday. Nitish Rana sits out out clash against RCB as Anukul Roy replaced him in KKR's playing XI. Meanwhile, Angkrish Raghuvanshi received his debut cap for KKR and is expected to come in second innings as KKR's impact player since he wasn't included in final XI.
What did the captains say?
Meanwhile, KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer after winning the toss said:
“We are going to bowl first. Had a brief chat with the curator, she was like the ball will spin as well. (Morale) It is fantastic, everyone is in high spirits. We have to carry forward the same momentum. It is important to be in the present. My role is to play an anchor role. It's always good to have a lethal bowling line-up. It is important to stay in the present. We have to see to it that we capitalise on the start. The bowling - Anukul comes in. I am seriously confused. There are two teams given to me".
RCB captain Faf du Plessis after the toss said:
“The same. It's a fresh wicket, looks a good wicket, you have to see how it plays in the first innings. It's important to close games early in the season. All the great crickets adapt, it's important to assess the conditions. We love the support and atmosphere. Same team.”
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Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI):
Philip Salt(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Kolkata Knight Riders Subs: Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, Manish Pandey, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI):
Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Cameron Green, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Anuj Rawat(w), Dinesh Karthik, Alzarri Joseph, Mayank Dagar, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Subs: Mahipal Lomror, Suyash Prabhudessai, Karn Sharma, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Swapnil Singh
RCB vs KKR's head-to-head
Kolkata Knight Riders hold the upper hand in their head-to-head record against Royal Challengers Bangalore, winning 18 out of 32 IPL matches played between them.
Pitch Report
"It looks a glorious evening. The square is a little bit used, but the outfield looks superb. Dimensions of the ground aren't huge. We are the centre of the square - 61 metres (square) either side and 75 metres down the ground. A high six-hitting ground. The first game played here, we saw a number of seam bowlers taking pace off the ball. Maybe that's something faster bowlers may go to today. It looks interesting. It's still a good pitch, it's hard but there are areas over here - when you look at the good length spots, some of these cracks over here, when you touch, they are a little bit loose. If the spinners keep landing the ball over here, it's going to come apart a little bit and get you a little more turn. We hope there'll be no dew interrupting," Ian Bishop and Sunil Gavaskar analysed the pitch.
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