A win against Royal Challengers Bangalore at their home for Rajasthan Royals helped them to stamp their authority at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium which has been the fortress for RR in the long history of IPL.
Tonight KKR led by Dinesh Karthik will be playing against RR looking to breach their strong record at home in search of a win. Both teams are coming off a win in their respective last games. While KKR won against Delhi at home, RR denied RCB a win at their fortress.
Coming into tonight's game, both teams will rest their hopes on Andre Russell and Sanju Samson respectively. The leading run-scorers in the tournament so far - Sanju Samson and Andre Russell - have been the leaders of this new change. Eye-catching in their own, distinctly different ways - one loaded with muscle and the other with magical touch - Russell and Samson have found different paths to the same goal.
However, the expected guns inn Chris Lynn and Ben Stokes have not quite fired all cylinders for their respective franchises. This is what will keep both the franchises thinking. Hopefully, tonight is the night when both of them come to colors.
Bowling wise, Sunil Narine has been leading the way for KKR. If not with the bat, Narine is making sure that he delivers with the ball. 7 wickets from four games, he is in the list of highest wicket-takers and has formed a formidable trio with Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav.
Rajasthan, on the other hand, will expect Jaydev Unadkat to come good tonight and their premier spinner, Shreyas Gopal who did well for them in the last game.
At the Sawai Man Singh stadium, RR have had the wood over KKR. Royals have won three out of four at their fortress while 9 out of 15 overall.
However, among the current teams, Kolkata looks the more stronger over Rajasthan keeping the all-round aspect of the game in concern. The forecast for tonight's game reads better than the last game which was affected by rain. Tonight though, there is no threat of rain in a contest which seems to be promising.
Toss: Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bowl first
Playing XIs:
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane (c), D Arcy Short, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (w), Rahul Tripathi, Krishnappa Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Laughlin.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (w/c), Andre Russell, Shubman Gill, Tom Curran, Piyush Chawla, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav.
