RR vs KKR LIVE Score, IPL 2021, Match 18: Sanju Samson wins toss and Rajasthan Royals will bowl first

IPL 2021, Live Cricket Score, Rajasthan Royals (RR) vs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR): Sanju Samson makes the right call at the toss and Rajasthan Royals opt to bowl first against RR at Mumbai. RR bring Unadkat back into XI and replace Vohra at the top with Jaiswal. KKR replace Nagarkoti with Shivam Mavi.

Preview: Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) take on each other in Match 18 of IPL 2021.

A tough start of sorts for RR to the current season of sees the team level on 2 points with three other teams after four matches played, one of them being their opponents on Saturday, in KKR. However, Royals’ Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara believes the team has the potential to bounce back and just needs to stitch a string of consistent performances.

Speaking ahead of Saturday’s encounter at the Wankhede Stadium, the former Sri Lankan captain said, “We know we’ve had a tough start to the competition, but we could be in a completely different position had we won the opening encounter. The last two defeats have been a little hard to take, but we take the positives and keep the faith in ourselves. It’s a long tournament and we certainly have the ability and the chance to turn this around tomorrow.”

“What is more important for us is to make sure we’ve learned our lessons, and can focus on the basics. In my opinion, we just need to start the games well, whether it is with the ball or the bat, we need to make sure we’re stamping our authority in the middle,” Sangakkara added.

RR captain Sanju Samson and KKR captain Eoin Morgan. Sportzpics

Like the Royals, their opponents on Saturday also enter the match having lost their last two encounters, against CSK and RCB, and Sangakkara believes his team will have to play out of their skin to get back to winning ways. “We know KKR is a strong team, and they’ve got a good balance. Just like us, I am sure they are also eager to bounce back, so it will be a tough challenge, and we will need to make sure we are executing all three facets of our game well in order to win,” expressed Sangakkara.

Last season in the UAE, the team from Kolkata managed to register two wins against the Royals, defending their totals on both the occasions, which should serve as added motivation for the inaugural winners of the IPL. “We have had the chance to sit together and make plans for the match tomorrow. We know KKR handed us two losses last season, and I believe these are the kind of matches we need to win if we want to make it to the playoffs,” Sangakkara signed off.

KKR won their their first game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and from then they have lost three consecutive matches, the last one against CSK being the closest they got to the victory mark. Eoin Morgan and Co can take confidence from the fight that the middle-order showed in the chase against Super Kings and would be hoping that they turn things around for themselves against RR.

Squads:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna, Harbhajan Singh, Shakib Al Hasan, Ben Cutting, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Kuldeep Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Sheldon Jackson, Sandeep Warrier, Tim Seifert, Lockie Ferguson, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Shivam Mavi, Vaibhav Arora

Rajasthan Royals: Jos Buttler, Manan Vohra, Sanju Samson(w/c), David Miller, Shivam Dube, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Shreyas Gopal, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman, Jaydev Unadkat, Andrew Tye, Liam Livingstone, KC Cariappa, Mahipal Lomror, Mayank Markande, Anuj Rawat, Kartik Tyagi, Kuldip Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Akash Singh

With inputs from Rajasthan Royals media