The Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bowl first against the Kolkata Knight Riders in match 31 of the Indian Premier League at Kolkata's Eden Gardens on Tuesday.
Both teams won their last games and occupy the top two spots on the points table. The Royals lead the standings with 10 points, but second-placed KKR can dethrone them with a victory tonight.
This high-stakes encounter promises an exciting battle between bat and ball. The Royals boast the IPL's most economical bowling attack, while KKR ranks as the second-most potent batting unit this season.
Eden Gardens has only hosted two games so far this season — a high-scoring affair in late March where KKR narrowly defeated the Sunrisers Hyderabad, and a lower-scoring outing on Sunday afternoon when KKR brushed aside a lackluster Lucknow Super Giants unit.
It's not a large enough sample size to draw definitive conclusions, but the pitch at Eden Gardens generally tends to favor batsmen, and the outfield is known for its lightning speed.
Rajasthan Royals XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, R. Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal .
Kolkata Knight Riders XI: Sunil Narine, Philip Salt (wk), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakaravarthy.
