Dubai: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Friday won the toss and opted to bowl against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) match here at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Both the teams remain unchanged in the grand finale of the league.
If numbers are anything to go by, then CSK, in their astonishing ninth final appearance in 12 editions (they were suspended in two), are certain to start favourites against Kolkata Knight Riders on 'Dussera' day but in terms of trophies, there isn't much of a difference.
Read: IPL 2021 Final: Thriller on cards as in-form KKR take on ever reliable CSK
CSK have three titles with five final defeats while KKR have won both their finals under the mercurial Gautam Gambhir. No team has mastered the art of reaching finals like Dhoni's CSK.
But KKR will definitely be in the hunt since they won one of the most exciting high-scoring summit clash back in 2012 where they chased a target of 190 with two balls to spare.
Read: CSK to win IPL 2021 final, Jadeja will be Man of the Match: Vaughan
Pitch Report: One of the best pitches used thus far in the tournament. Looks lively and good to bat. Spinners will still come into play and some tight bowling may put breaks on the scoreline of the batting side.
At the toss, KKR skipper Eoin Morgan said, "We are gonna have a bowl, the wicket looks good and there's some dew around. We are gonna give it everything tonight. We are going with the same team.
CSK's captain MS Dhoni said, "We are looking to bowl first as well, initially it stops a bit and as the game goes on it settles down and toss is uncontrollable and we are prepared for both. We started T20 in around 2005-06 and most of the games have been franchise cricket and in the last five years there have been a lot of T20 games in international cricket as well. We are playing with the same squad.
Teams:
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Robin Uthappa, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik(w), Eoin Morgan(c), Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakaravarthy.
