Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) lock horns with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) as Faf Du Plessis won the toss and elected to bowl first in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match at the Eden Gardens stadium in Kolkata on Thursday (April 6).
Faf Du Plessis made one change to RCB's playing XI as David Willy came in for injured Reece Topley. Meanwhile, KKR dropped Anukul Roy to bring in Venkatest Iyer. KKR could use 19-year-old spinner Suyash Sharma as their impact player, who is set to make his debut for KKR.
“Going to have a bowl. Bit of a misunderstanding with the accent there (confusion at the toss). Was dew last night. Hoping it will get skiddy in the second innings. That's a long way away. Today is a completely new game. Really motivated to put in a good performance. Forced change with Topley being injured. Willey comes in,” RCB skipper said.
“Was looking to bowl as well because of the dew factor. Anukul is replaced by Suyash,” KKR captain Nitish Rana said after the toss.
Head-to-Head
Kolkata Knight Riders lead the head-to-head record in IPL matches against the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 16-14. The two teams have been a part of all the IPL seasons played so far, meeting 30 times on the field. KKR have won 16 out of those 30 games.
Matches Played - 30
Matches won by Kolkata Knight Riders - 16
Matches won by Royal Challengers Bangalore - 14
Matches with No Result - 0
Pitch Report
“The square boundaries are pretty short at the Eden Gardens. Straight boundary is slightly longer at 75 metres from one end. 195 is the average first innings score here over the last nine matches. The team batting first will need to get around that kind of score on this pitch,” Danny Morrison analyses the pitch.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Glenn Maxwell, Michael Bracewell, Shahbaz Ahmed, David Willey, Karn Sharma, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj.
Subs: Finn Allen, Sonu Yadav, Mahipal Lomror, Suyash Prabhudessai, Anuj Rawat
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Mandeep Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Subs: Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, N Jagadeesan, David Wiese
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