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.
KL Rahul: I would've looked to bowl as well, but looks like a good wicket, so will remain the same for the 40 overs. It's just everything coming together, the last four or five games, we've come really well. It's good to see and it's been a complete team effort. We would look to go out there and enjoy ourselves. Same team
Steve Smith: We will bowl. Don't know what happens here with the dew, so we are gonna chase tonight. It's been a bit of up and down tournament for us. It's been a tough one, we've got Varun Aaron is in.
Teams:
Kings XI Punjab (Playing XI): KL Rahul(w/c), Mandeep Singh, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Deepak Hooda, Chris Jordan, Murugan Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Robin Uthappa, Ben Stokes, Steven Smith(c), Sanju Samson(w), Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Varun Aaron, Kartik Tyagi
