Mumbai : Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders in the sixth match of IPL 2022 at the DY Patil Sports Stadium, here on Wednesday.
It was a toss where both teams wanted to bowl first but Bangalore had the luck on their side.
After winning the toss, du Plessis confirmed that Bangalore are sticking with the playing eleven from the five-wicket loss in their opening match to Punjab Kings.
“The pitch looks similar but it feels a little bit tacky. A lot of positives, the first 3-4 overs were challenging, the way we batted through. From bowling perspective, you are expected not to get everything perfect. Nice to start the tournament like that (on 88 off 57 balls in the first match), hopefully I can do that again.”
Kolkata Knight Riders captain Shreyas Iyer said New Zealand pacer Tim Southee comes in for Shivam Mavi for the only change in the playing eleven from the six-wicket win against Chennai Super Kings.
“Dew plays a massive role. The bowlers did an amazing job, made it easy for the batsmen. Now it’s going to be a test for us to come in and bat and see to it that we get a good total. It’s just a work of execution. We need to carry forward this momentum into the next games.”
Asked about the Southee-Mavi swap, Iyer remarked, “Tim carries a lot of experience, Mavi is a youngster and has done well for the franchise. It was a management decision, we sat together and decided that let’s go with experience.”
Playing XIs
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (captain), Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Sherfane Rutherford, Wanindu Hasaranga, David Willey, Harshal Patel, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Deep and Mohammed Siraj
Kolkata Knight Riders: Venkatesh Iyer, Ajinkya Rahane, Nitish Rana, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Sam Billings, Andre Russell, Sheldon Jackson (wicket-keeper), Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy
–IANS