Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) will host the Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata today in the 31st match of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The Royals are on top of the points table with their only loss in six matches coming against the Gujarat Titans. On the other hand, the Knight Riders have also lost only one game, against the Chennai Super Kings away from home and are second in the table.

This is a much-awaited encounter with both teams performing exceptionally well so far and the winner of the team will strengthen its position at the top of the table. KKR already have a match in hand as compared to the Royals and if they win today, they will jump to the top with 10 points. While RR also have 10 points, KKR boast of an extremely superior net run-rate thanks to their 106-run win over Delhi Capitals.

KKR vs RR Pitch Report

Eden Gardens in Kolkata offer short boundaries which make this a high-scoring venue. In the only evening game played here, KKR defended 208 runs against SRH to win by just four runs. The previous match played here was in afternoon and the hosts chased 162 runs without breaking a sweat. This makes it clear that chasing has to be preferred at this venue and a score around 200 could be par depending on the bowlers. The pitch will be good for batting and the bowlers will have to come up with variations to keep the batters quiet.

Eden Gardens, Kolkata T20 Numbers (IPL 2024)

Total Matches – 2

Team won batting first – 1

Team won bowling first – 1

Average first inns score – 185

Highest score – 208 by KKR vs SRH

Squads

Rajasthan Royals Squad: Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Tanush Kotian, Keshav Maharaj, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Sen, Yuzvendra Chahal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Shubham Dubey, Navdeep Saini, Abid Mushtaq, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jos Buttler, Sandeep Sharma, Nandre Burger, Donovan Ferreira, Kunal Singh Rathore

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Allah Ghazanfar, Sakib Hussain, Sherfane Rutherford, Chetan Sakariya, Nitish Rana, Srikar Bharat, Dushmantha Chameera