Abu Dhabi: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Thursday won the toss and elected to field against Mumbai Indians (MI) here at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in the 34th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Pitch Report: The match will be played on a new surface which is likely to assist the fast bowlers because of the presence of grass on it. The size of the boundary will help spinners too. The batsmen will need to be patient and selective in their shots as a close contest is on the cards between the bowlers and batters.
Head-to-head: It has been a lopsided contest thus far between these two teams with Mumbai winning a staggering 22 out of 28 games against the Kolkata team. KKR has also lost all the last four games against the Rohit Sharma-led side.
At the toss, MI skipper Rohit Sharma said, "Feeling good. Looking forward to the game. Just one change - Anmol misses out. Not a lot to be honest. Certain basics of cricket that was missed, we need to do right. We have spoken about it and hopefully we can execute."
On the other hand, KKR captain Eoin Morgan said, "We are going to bowl first. It worked in the first game and we are going for the same formula. Not getting complacent and sport has the knack to bite you in the back side. We have kept the same side."
Teams:
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Rohit Sharma(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Saurabh Tiwary, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Adam Milne, Rahul Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna.
