Toss: Rising Pune Supergiant chose to bowl v Kolkata Knight Riders
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Suryakumar Yadav returned after three games for Knight Riders, replacing the injured Robin Uthappa © BCCI
Steven Smith called correctly and Rising Pune Supergiant elected to bowl against Kolkata Knight Riders on a humid evening at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Smith’s decision was not surprising, given Knight Riders’ chasing record at the Eden, with 21 wins out of the 25 times they have batted second.
Knight Riders were forced to make a change. Robin Uthappa missed out with a hamstring niggle and captain Gautam Gambhir said they did not want to risk exacerbating the injury. He was replaced by Suryakumar Yadav, who had missed their last three matches. Rising Pune went in with the same XI that beat Gujarat Lions two nights back.
A win for Knight Riders will take them back to the top of the table, while a win or loss will not affect the top-four position for Rising Pune, who are currently fourth with 12 points.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Gautam Gambhir (capt), Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Suryakumar Yadav, Sheldon Jackson, (wk), Colin de Grandhomme, Chris Woakes, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav
Rising Pune Supergiant: Rahul Tripathi, Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith (capt), Ben Stokes, Manoj Tiwary, MS Dhoni (wk), Dan Christian, Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadkat, Imran Tahir
Akshay Gopalakrishnan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo