Abu Dhabi: In the 50th match, Rajasthan Royals skipper Steve Smith won the toss and decided to field first against Kings XI Punjab here at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Friday. Varun Aaron is playing his second match for RR in IPL 2020, while KXIP are unchanged.
KXIP and RR have faced each other 20 times in the IPL history till date, and Rajasthan have a slight edge over Punjab as they lead the win/loss ratio with 11-9 record.
Earlier this season, RR beat KXIP by four wickets on the back of Sanju Samson's 42-ball 85 and half-centuries from Rahul Tewatia and Steve Smith. Kings XI opener Mayank Agarwal had scored 106 off 50 balls in Sharjah back then, while Mohammed Shami took a three-wicket haul against the Royals.
Pitch Report by Danny Morrison and Daren Ganga: This pitch looks good for batting. As a batsman, you wanna target the shorter boundaries and picking the gaps will be crucial. Another factor is the approach of Ben Stokes in the last game. Only 3 sixes were hit, so that's an important information from the batting point of view. There is a lovely covering of grass, so go and boss it out there.