Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders captain Nitish Rana has won the toss and elected to bowl first against four-time champions Chennai Super Kings in Match 33 of IPL 2023 at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.
Chennai are currently in third place in the points table while Kolkata are in eighth position. In head-to-head IPL record, Chennai have won 17 out of 26 times against Kolkata and a win for them on Sunday will take them to the top of the points table.
After winning the toss, Rana said that fast-bowling all-rounder David Wiese and wicketkeeper-batter N. Jagadeesan have come into the playing eleven in place of Litton Das and Mandeep Singh, with Shardul Thakur still out due to a niggle.
“Looks like a good pitch. Will be better to chase if dew comes. If we can click in all three departments, the result will be in our favour,” he said.
While Chennai enter Sunday’s match on the back of a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad at home, Kolkata go into the game after three straight losses, the latest of which was a four-wicket defeat to bottom-placed Delhi Capitals in New Delhi.
Chennai skipper M.S. Dhoni said his playing eleven is unchanged while adding he would have liked to bowl first too. “Players have grown in confidence, especially the bowling department. What is important is for everyone to contribute. Take that one good catch, one good run out.”
On being greeted by a sea of yellow in the stands at Eden Gardens, Dhoni remarked, “I have played a lot of cricket over here. I had a job in Kharagpur which is two hours from here. The love comes from there.”
Playing XIs:
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, M.S. Dhoni (c/wk), Matheesha Pathirana, Tushar Deshpande and Maheesh Theekshana
Substitutes: Akash Singh, Dwaine Pretorius, Subhranshu Senapati, Shaik Rasheed, Rajvardhan Hangargekar
Kolkata Knight Riders: N. Jagadeesan (wk), Jason Roy, Nitish Rana (c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Kulwant Khejroliya, Suyash Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy
Substitutes: Mandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Litton Das, Venkatesh Iyer.
(IANS)
