Starc to Prithvi Shaw, wide, full ball swinging down leg, 139.7kph, Shaw looks to flick but misses

STAT: Only the 2nd time a team has chosen to bat first at Eden Gardens in 39 IPL matches since 2017. Another instance was PBKS vs KKR last year.

Starc to Prithvi Shaw, FOUR, there we go! First ball, and the first boundary! Full outside off from Starc, hint of inswing, Shaw gets forward and punches sweetly through extra cover. Finds the gap and it races away

Prithvi Shaw and Fraser-McGurk are at the crease. Prithvi Shaw is on strike. Starc will open the attack

Ganguly rings the bell and out come the players. One slip in place for Starc against Shaw.

Do check out our combination on Fantasy Handbook again before you finalise your teams. We have made three changes after the toss.

Here are the Impact substitutes for both the teams:

Delhi Capitals Impact Subs: Mukesh Kumar, Praveen Dubey, Ricky Bhui, Sumit Kumar, Kumar Kushagra

Kolkata Knight Riders Subs: Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz

Teams:

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy

Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Prithvi Shaw, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel, Shai Hope, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Rasikh Dar Salam, Lizaad Williams, Khaleel Ahmed

Shreyas: We were looking to bowl first. Rishabh and I were having a chat - he said 'we're looking to bat' and I said we're looking to bowl. We're trying to keep things as simple as possible. When you lose a game like that, scoring 260, it's easy for people to go away from each other and backbite. But we're keeping everyone together. Starc and Vaibhav Arora are back.

Pant: We'll bat first. The way our team is poised, would look to put a score on the board. Wicket looks slightly on the slower side. Shaw comes back, Kushagra misses out. Rasikh Dar starts in place of Mukesh I guess. Talk is to take one match at the time.

Delhi Capitals have won the toss and have opted to bat

Pitch report | Daren Ganga and Simon Katich: 59 meters square boundary on one side, 71 meters on the other. Pitch is rock hard. Ball will come on beautifully. There will be runs tonight, bowlers have got their work cut out. This is the wicket that was played on against RR. Batters are going to enjoy out here again tonight.

Fraser-McGurk isn't the only one who has made a huge impact at the top of the order. The pair of Sunil Narine and Phil Salt has been doing it right through the tournament. Narine, in fact, smashed 85 off just 39 balls the last time he faced Capitals. Today there might be a new challenge for him in the form of Lizaad Williams who seemed rapid on his IPL debut a couple of days ago. But regardless of how that matchup plays out, be prepared for another run-fest here, unlike what we saw last night at Chepauk.

6.30pm local: Hello and welcome to our coverage of Match 47 which takes place at the Eden Gardens. It's No. 2 on the table KKR taking on No. 6 Delhi Capitals, but the interesting thing is that both these teams have the same number of points. The table is so tight that every result will bring about big fluctuations in the order, and Capitals could leapfrog the hosts if they continue their upward surge which has seen them win four of their last five games. A big part of their success has been the introduction of Jake Fraser-Mcgurk who has taken the IPL by storm with three blistering fifties - two of which have come off just 15 balls. What will he do at a venue where a target of 262 was chased down successfully in the previous match here?

Preview

Irrespective of how busy the doctors in the Delhi Capitals' team have been and how short of options the team management has been in finding ideal combinations, somehow, just past the mid-way stage of their IPL 2024 campaign, they find themselves equal on points with Kolkata Knight Riders, the two-time IPL-winning franchise going through possibly their most dominant league-stage run.

It's a different matter that the Shreyas Iyer-led side has two extra games at hand, but they will be smart enough to not take this challenge against the bruised DC lightly. They have seen DC give them a tough fight the last time the two sides met and KKR had posted a total upwards of 270. With the next game also promising to be a run-fest, PBKS have given them another reminder that no matter how many runs they pile on, it may not be enough.

Unlike KKR, DC lack depth in their batting and are far from having the most imposing bowling attack either. But somehow they have managed to eke out wins in the last few games. And even the one they lost - against SRH - was a contest that they allowed to slip away from their grasp.

It promises to be an interesting run to the finish of the league stage, and both DC and KKR are in no position to let their guards down at the moment.

When: Monday, April 29, 2023, 7:30 PM IST

Where: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Delhi Capitals, IPL 2024, Eden Gardens, Kolkata

What to expect: Records have been broken and runs have flowed. The two teams played out a run-fest previously this season in Visakhapatnam, and it's unlikely that there could be anything else in the sultry climes of Eden Gardens

Team Watch

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Injuries/unavailability: It remains unclear if Mitchell Starc will be available for the game

Tactics & Matchups: DC may have the best spin duo in the competition, but Shreyas Iyer has taken apart Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel quite effectively in the past. The KKR skipper could have an important role to play in the middle overs. Similarly, Varun Chakravarthy has managed to keep it tight against Tristan Stubbs in the past and dismissed Rishabh Pant twice in 28 balls. His role will be important in the middle overs alongside Sunil Narine

Probable XI: Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Phil Salt, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Dushmantha Chameera/Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakravarthy [Impact Substitute: Vaibhav Arora]

Delhi Capitals:

Injuries/unavailability: David Warner and Ishant Sharma are unlikely to be available for the game. Doubts also persist over Prithvi Shaw's availability

Tactics & Matchups: Andre Russell has struggled to pick Kuldeep Yadav's variations well in the past and DC could be tempted to use their left-arm spinner against the big-hitting West Indian.

Probable XI: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abhisek Porel, Shai Hope, Rishabh Pant, Tristan Stubbs, Kumar Kushagra, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Anrich Nortje/Lizaad Williams, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, [Impact Sub: Rasikh Salam]

What they said:

He (Fraser-McGurk) has been amazing since the first day and this is what you want from a younger player, he's getting better and better with each game. The chances (of making it to the playoffs) are increasing day by day, but we are taking it one game at a time - Rishabh Pant, DC captain

We have to sum up the conditions and come up with better ideas. It is brilliant to see him (Narine) go out there and strike the ball, hopefully he keeps continuing with such performances - Shreyas Iyer, KKR captain

Squads: