Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bowl first against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Qualifier 2 of IPL 2022 being played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday evening. The winner of this contest will face Gujarat Titans in the final this Sunday.
IPL FULL COVERAGE | SCHEDULE | RESULTS | ORANGE CAP | PURPLE CAP
Both the teams are unchanged.
“The wicket is a bit sticky and hopefully it will help our bowlers first-up,” Samson explained his decision to bat first.
When asked how RR did on the match even, Samson said, “Yesterday we had a good practice session. Everyone is happy and excited for the game. Emotionally everyone is connected to the team and the franchise. Important to keep calm and cut off the noise, trust yourself and just another game of cricket.”
RCB captain Faf du Plessis said he would have batted first anyway. “We were actually looking to bat first, it looks a good pitch and we believe runs on the board in a big game will count in our favour,” Du Plessis said.
He added, Guys had a good rest yesterday, but today everyone has turned up really fresh and pumped up for the game. Tonight we are playing a very strong team and it is all about doing the right things.”
This is the third time and final time this season that RR and RCB will be crossing swords. In their first meeting, RCB overhauled the target of 170 for a four-wicket win in April while later in the month, RR repaid in kind with a 29-run win.
The winning momentum is with RCB thanks to their win over Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator played on Wednesday. On the other hand, RR suffered a seven-wicket defeat at the hands of GT in the first qualifier on Tuesday.
RR haven’t made the IPL final since they won the T20 league in 2008 while RCB last made it to the summit clash in 2016 when they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Playing XIs
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (wk / captain), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Obed McCoy, Yuzvendra Chahal
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (captain), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Josh Hazlewood, Mohammed Siraj
Get all the latest updates on Cricket News, Cricket Photos, Cricket Videos, IPL 2022 Live Updates and Cricket Scores here