IPL 2024: Markram, Unadkat return as RR elect to bowl first against SRH in Qualifier 2

Chennai, May 24 Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bowl first against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2 at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Friday. The winner of the match will face Kolkata Knight Riders in the final on Sunday.

RR entered Qualifier 2 after beating Royal Challengers Bengaluru by four wickets in the Eliminator at Ahmedabad, while SRH came into the crucial clash after suffering an eight-wicket defeat to KKR in Qualifier 1.

After winning the toss, RR skipper Sanju Samson said they are fielding the same line-up from the Eliminator clash in Qualifier 2. “Look to bowl first by looking at the conditions and what Chepauk offers in the second half. We are trying our best to recover (from a bug in the team), the doctors and physios are doing a great job.”

“We are doing much better. We played at 70% of our potential with batting on discussion with Sangakkara and we managed to cross the line. We'd like to be better. In each and every venue, the dimensions change. We are well equipped to play accordingly,” he said.

SRH skipper Pat Cummins said batter Aiden Markram and left-arm fast-bowler Jaydev Unadkat come into the playing eleven. “We would have bowled too. The guys will be aggressive, it's not going to work every time, and we are going to lose wickets sometimes.”

“We were well below our best a couple of days ago. Another chance tonight, much of the same. (Bowling) It's an ongoing discussion, this ground is a little bit bigger,” he said.

Friday’s Qualifier 2 is being played on pitch number seven in Chennai, with a huge difference in square boundaries of 61 metres and 72 metres respectively, while down the ground boundary dimensions are 77 meters.

Playing XIs:

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma and Yuzvendra Chahal

Impact substitutes: Shimron Hetmyer, Nandre Burger, Shubham Dubey, Donovan Ferreira and Kuldeep Sen

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Reddy, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T. Natarajan

Impact substitutes: Umran Malik, Sanvir Singh, Glenn Phillips, Mayank Markande and Shahbaz Ahmed

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