Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli, on Monday, won the toss and elected to bat against Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 Eliminator. While KKR are two-time champions, RCB are eyeing to clinch their maiden IPL title.

“We are going to bat first, looks like a great wicket, nice and hard. It gets tougher to bat here in Sharjah as the game progresses. No changes. A youngster steps up and wins you a game against a top side like Delhi. Very happy for KS. This is what this tournament is all about. Meetings have been pretty short and sharp,” Virat Kohli said at the toss.

He further added: “We have the ability to win games, nothing changes this being an Eliminator.”

Talking about losing the toss, KKR captain Eoin Morgan said: “We would have loved to bowl first anyways. The toss doesn’t bother us. We are feeling confident within the group, we are starting to come good as a team. We are playing with the same team.”

Playing XI (from):

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakaravarthy

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Srikar Bharat(w), Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Daniel Christian, Shahbaz Ahmed, George Garton, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal

In the head-to-head contest, KKR is leading RCB 15:13. And in the last 5 meetings, RCB has been a dominant force, leading 4:1.

Last five meetings:

September 20, 2021 – KKR won by 9 wickets (with 60 balls remaining)

April 18, 2021 – RCB won by 38 runs

October 21, 2020 – RCB won by 8 wickets (with 39 balls remaining)

October 12, 2020 – RCB won by 82 runs

April 19, 2019 – RCB won by 10 runs

This match-up will also be the first time when RCB is playing KKR in IPL knockouts/playoffs.