XtraTime Web Desk: High on confidence Rajasthan Royals will be aiming for their third consecutive victory when they will face a resurgent Kolkata Knight Riders in an Indian Premier League game at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur tomorrow. After losing the first game against Sunrisers Hyderabad, they beat Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore in back to back games.
In the game against RCB, Rajasthan wicketkeeper batsman Sanju Samson was the star of the match as he scored 92 runs from just 45 deliveries. RR would like to see another knock like this from Samson against KKR as well.
They are on their home turf where they have seldom lost matches but they would still be wary of KKR who outplayed Delhi Daredevils rather comfortably last night for their second win in four games. With Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine at the top and big hitters like Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana and Andre Russell in the middle, KKR have enough fire power and depth.
Their bowling too has the right balance with the deceptive Narine, the current purple cap holder in the tournament. Wily old horse Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav are capable of weaving a web around any batting side. Pacer Shivam Mavi, who rose to stardom during the recent U-19 World Cup, and Russell provide the medium pace variety to KKR.
However, the tight schedule of the tournament has left KKR so drained that they have preferred to rest today instead of holding a practice session. The pink city, after a two and half hour rain interruption in the previous match, is under a dry and hot spell. The wicket here is a sporting one but a little bit of dryness would help the KKR spin department.
Squads:
Rajasthan Royals: Heinrich Klassen, Benjamin Stokes, Jaydev Unadkat, Sanju Samson, Jofra Archer, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jos Buttler, Ajinkya Rahane, Darcy Short, Rahul Tripathi, Dhawal Kulkarni, Zahir Khan Pakteen, Ben Laughlin, Stuart Binny, Dushmantha Chameera, Anureet Singh, Aryaman Vikram Birla, Midhun S, Shreyas Gopal, Prashant Chopra, Jatin Saxena, Ankit Sharma, Mahipal Lomror.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Dinesh Karthik (c and WK), Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Chris Lynn, Robin Uthappa, Kuldeep Yadav, Piyush Chawla, Nitish Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi, Mitchell Johnson, Shubman Gill, R Vinay Kumar, Rinku Singh, Cameron Delport, Javon Searless, Apoorv Wankhade, Ishank Jaggi and Tom Curran.