Rajasthan and Kolkata meet in Dubai for the Wednesday encounter of the Indian T20 League 2020.
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Rajasthan and Kolkata make their travel to Dubai for their Indian T20 Clash on Wednesday night. Rajasthan surprised cricket experts to win two matches in a row and their last historic win against Punjab, made them dark horses of the tournament. On a flat batting track, Smith opted to bowl first and Punjab put 223 on board. After losing Butler early, Samson and Smith put a good stand by scoring consecutive half-centuries. After picking Samson in 18th over, Punjab was on driver’s seat but the batting carnage from Rahul Tewatia spoiled the night for Punjab. Rajsthan scripted the highest successful chase in the tournament history. Before welcoming Stokes next month, Rajasthan would aim to make three in a row on a different ground.
Meanwhile, Kolkata opened their account after a convincing 7-wickets victory over Hyderabad. The tight economical bowling from Cummins and Chakraborty stooped Hyderabad on just 142. In the chase, Kolkata lost Narine early but Shubhman Gill showed grittiness and scored 70 to take Kolkata home along with Morgan who played a finisher with 29-balls 42. Kolkata lost their opening game against Mumbai and they got their confidence back. The Dubai game will not be an easy affair for Karthik as Rajasthan’s young brigade is in top-class form and they stand as the favourites.
Pitch Report
Dubai’s surface is quite different from other pitches and it has plenty of runs for batsmen with a slight help to spin in middle-overs. Batting first is always a good idea as the chasing sides have seen pressure. Both sides have good hard-hitting batsmen so it might be a high-scoring affair.
Possible XI
Rajasthan
Steven Smith (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Tom Curran, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Ankit Rajpoot, Jaydev Unadkat
Kolkata
Shubman Gill, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (c & wk), Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Kamlesh Nagarkoti
Key Players
Rajasthan
Sanju Samson
This season so far: 74 (32), 85 (42)
Steven Smith
This season so far: 69 (47), 50 (27)
Kolkata
Eoin Morgan
Highest run-scorer in T20Is for England in last one year
Previous outing: 42 (29)
Shubman Gill
Technically sound player
Previous outing: 70 (62)
