IPL 2025: Sunrisers Hyderabad elect to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders

New Delhi, May 25 (IANS) Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their final game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Sunday.

Both SRH and KKR had been eliminated from the competition a long time ago, and a win in their final match at a neutral venue in New Delhi will give either of the two teams a chance to sign off on a high. Whoever wins Sunday’s clash would most likely finish in sixth place in the points table.

After winning the toss, Cummins said, “Looks like a good wicket. We've just clicked, the bowlers have been sharp, and the batters have played to their potential. Always hope to find momentum early, the good thing is we know we can keep this squad going forward. We have played well the last 3-4 games, will try to find that consistency.”

KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane said he would have bowled first, citing that the last two matches at the stadium were won by the chasing team very easily. KKR is also taking the field for the first time after playing against Chennai Super Kings on May 7, with Manish Pandey managing to retain his place in the playing eleven while Quinton de Kock comes in place of Rahmanullah Gurbaz.

“Playing after 18 days feels like a challenge, but just trying to focus on the practice session. We know everyone is going home after this game, so we are just trying to play to win and play to entertain. We had our moments this season, it is all about accepting the mistakes and learning from the good things.”

“It is about playing for the fans, playing for pride. Angkrish (Raghuvanshi) has been fantastic. He is an opening batter, but he has adapted to playing at 4 or 5. I hope he builds from this and gets to represent India as well. He has been working hard, and he could have a bright future ahead of him,” he said.

Sunday’s match will be played on pitch number six, with 67m and 60m being the square boundaries, while the boundary straight down the ground stands at 73m.

Playing XIs:

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan (wk), Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (captain), Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, and Eshan Malinga

Impact substitutes: Mohammad Shami, Harsh Dubey, Sachin Baby, Zeeshan Ansari, and Simarjeet Singh

Kolkata Knight Riders: Quinton de Kock (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Anrich Nortje, Varun Chakaravarthy

Impact substitutes: Anukul Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Spencer Johnson, Luvnith Sisodia

--IANS

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