Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Eoin Morgan won the toss and chose to bowl in the IPL 2021 final againt the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Friday.
The decision was a straighforward one, as chasing has been the preferred option at the Dubai International Stadium, where Mahendra Singh Dhoni‘s side have won all their games batting second this season.
Speaking on the decision, Morgan said that the wicket looked good and there could be dew in the second half, which will help them while chasing. He also said his team were prepared to “give it everything tonight” to try and win their third IPL title.
Meanwhile, Dhoni said he was looking to bowl first as well, but his side was prepared to for both outcomes as toss is “uncontrollable”.
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The former Indian captain is playing his 300th T20 game as captain today. Speaking on the feat, the Ranchi-born wicketkeeper-batsman said, “It’s been a long time…..we started T20 in around 2005-06 and most of the games have been franchise cricket and in the last five years there have been a lot of T20 games in international cricket as well”.
Both skippers confirmed they have fielded unchanged sides for the blockbuster encounter. Here are the playing XIs:
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Faf du Plessis, Robin Uthappa, Moeen Ali, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Josh Hazlewood.
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Kolkata Knight Riders: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik(w), Eoin Morgan(c), Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakaravarthy.
CSK are playing a record ninth IPL final, having won three titles so far. KKR, on the other hand, have a 100% win rate in the two final they have reached – in 2012 and 2014.
Led by Gautam Gambhir in both those campaigns, KKR beat Dhoni’s CSK in the 2012 final to lift their first title.
