The Kolkata Knight Riders were struggling at 80/3 at the halfway stage of the innings against the Gujarat Titans. KKR lost their skipper, Ajinkya Rahane, for a first-ball duck as they found it hard to get going early on in the innings.
Rahane departed for zero, and his dismissal was followed by Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who was dismissed for 8 runs in 4 balls. Tim Seifert soon joined the list as he departed for 19 runs in 14 balls.
For GT, Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada were the star bowlers. Siraj picked a wicket while Rabada took 2 wickets to give GT a dream start.
Earlier, Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and decided to bat first against the Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. KKR are still winless this season and are stuck at the bottom of the table. Meanwhile, GT will move into the top 4 of the table with a win.
After winning the toss, KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane decided to bat first. The Indian batter suggested that his team is just trying to find a way to win games, and batting first will give them the option to bat more freely.
“We`ll look to bat first. We just want our batters to play freely, with freedom. The kind of tournament we’ve had so far, we’ve tried everything, chasing targets, batting first as well. I thought giving that freedom to the batters and then defending the total would be a good approach. That (batting first is a good option) is what I got to know. But again, sometimes you don’t have to depend too much on data and stats. It’s all about what you feel as a team and what you strongly want to do. We just want to focus on our strengths, play good cricket. T20 is all about momentum, winning small moments. Today, we just want to play fearless cricket and stay in the moment. Just one change. Tim Seifert comes in place of Finn Allen.” Ajinkya Rahane said.
Confirmed playing XI for both teams:
Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Shubman Gill(c), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler(w), Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Ashok Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Tim Seifert, Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi
