Abu Dhabi [UAE] : Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli won the toss and opted to bowl first against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 encounter here at the Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
Speaking during the toss, Virat Kohli said, ” We are gonna bowl first. We have seen the wicket eases out in the second half. We had a bit of a jolt at the start of this leg. Against Chennai, we could have made a game out of it. We were 15-20 short. Every team wants to qualify with a few games to spare. Having qualified, we would want to back ourselves to deliver when under pressure. Same side for us.”
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Kane Williamson said, “Exciting oppurtunity for us. I think as an environment, we would try to evolve. There is still some focus. There is a lot of enthusiasm thanks to the youth in the team. We are going with the same side from the last match.”
The Match 52 of IPL 2021 features a clash between RCB and SRH. With SRH long gone from the competition, and RCB guaranteed a top 4 spot, this match has less riding on it than some. However, RCB will hope for a huge win today to give their net run rate a real boost and keep their ambitions of a top 2 spot alive.
Playing XI: Sunrisers Hyderabad: Jason Roy, Wriddhiman Saha(w), Kane Williamson(c), Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, and Umran Malik.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Daniel Christian, Shahbaz Ahmed, Srikar Bharat(w), George Garton, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, and Yuzvendra Chahal.