Nitish Rana, Rinku Singh Power KKR to a 7-Wicket Victory Over RR. Shreyas Iyer Departs, Rana-Rinku Key in Run-Chase For Kolkata. Shreyas Iyer, Nitish Rana Steady in Run-Chase For Kolkata. Indrajith Departs, Shreyas Iyer Key in Run-Chase For Kolkata. Finch Perishes, Shreyas-Indrajith Key in Run-Chase For Kolkata. Finch-Indrajith Steady in Run-Chase For Kolkata. Shimron Hetmyer Late Surge Guides Rajasthan to 152. Samson, Parag Depart Quickly, RR in Spot of Bother. Nair Perishes; Samson Hits Fifty. Buttler Departs; Samson Key For Rajasthan. Buttler-Samson Steady For Rajasthan. Padikkal Perishes; Buttler Key For Rajasthan. Kolkata Knight Riders have won the toss and elected to field first at Wankhede Stadium. Shreyas Iyer at TOSS: We will bowl first, seems like a used wicket. Considering the dew factor it helps us in the second innings. We have lost many close games. The chat is always been positive cricket. We need to play fearless cricket. We have two changes. Roy comes in for Venky and Mavi comes in. It's important to have the right combination. We are trying to give as many matches as possible to the players, but it's also important to get the right combinations. Sanju Samson at TOSS: Nothing different today, looking forward to winning some tosses going forward. In this format the margin for error is very small. We have put in a great standard. Nothing much to improve on. We have Karun Nair coming in for Mitchell in this game. We are making a few changes looking at the conditions, and we feel Karun Nair will be a better option against tonight's opponents.
Rajasthan Royals have banked heavily on Jos Buttler this season and for good reason. He is the highest run-scorer in this edition of the IPL and with three hundreds so far, he has the chance to equal or even break Virat Kohli's record for the most hundreds in an IPL season.
However, on Monday Jos Buttler failed to give the RR that much-needed momentum.
Umesh Yadav drew first blood for Kolkata Knight Riders when he dismissed Devdutt Padikkal in the third over of the RR innings. Jos Buttler fell to Tim Southee in the ninth over for a 25-ball 22 when he tried to up the ante.
KKR made two changes on Monday: Anukul Roy and Shivam Mavi were brought in after Venkatesh Iyer and Harshit Rana were dropped. Karun Nair replaced Daryll Mitchell in the only change for the Royals but he fell to KKR debutant Anukul Roy while Riyan Parag hit two sixes before perishing to Southee for a 12-ball 19.
Sanju Samson steadied the RR innings with a 49-ball 54 but he did not get enough support from the rest of his batters.
Shimron Hetmyer's cameo at the end helped Rajasthan Royals post a respectable 152 for 5 off their 20 overs against a team which has struggled to get the right combinations for most of the season.
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Karun Nair, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen.
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Aaron Finch, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer(c), Baba Indrajith(w), Nitish Rana, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi.