Kolkata, May 24 (IANS) An unchanged Kolkata Knight Riders have won the toss and elected to bowl first against Delhi Capitals in the final league stage match of IPL 2026 at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.

KKR need Mumbai Indians to beat Rajasthan Royals in the ongoing game at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, while also needing to beat DC by huge margin to clinch a last-minute entry into the playoffs.

After winning the toss, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane said, “It’s pretty simple. We know the scenario depending on what’s going to happen in the previous game, which is happening right now. But regardless of that, we don’t know what the result will be.

“Also, the wicket looks really good. So yes, it’s very simple. It’s still a game of cricket to be played, and the last six games have been fantastic for us. We still want to compete and win this game. As I said, we don’t know what’s going to happen, but whenever you play a game of cricket, you always look to win.”

Asked about his thoughts on KKR’s campaign so far, Rahane said, “Really proud of the unit, especially because it’s not easy to come back from the situation we were in. It takes courage, character, and attitude to bounce back as a team.

“IPL is a funny tournament with 24–25 players and support staff, maintaining that atmosphere, intensity and carrying it forward every time is fantastic. So yes, I’m really proud of each and every one.”

KKR face a steep net run rate challenge – if DC post 180, KKR will need to chase it down in just about 12 overs to stay alive in the playoffs race. Should DC set a target of 200, KKR will have to complete the chase between 12.1 and 12.4 overs to overtake Punjab Kings on NRR.

DC skipper Axar Patel said Kuldeep Yadav and Auqib Nabi return to their playing eleven, adding that he would have looked to bowl first as well. Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep will come in DC’s bowling innings as the Impact Player, while Finn Allen is likely to come into KKR’s chase.

“Obviously I would have bowled first because, the way this tournament has gone, we’ve done well while chasing. So yes, looking at that, we would’ve bowled first. But it’s not bad because the wicket looks good and even if we look ahead to next year, though that’s still far away, if we bat first, our batsmen will get an opportunity to understand how to approach batting first as well.

Asked on his reflections over DC’s inconsistent campaign, Axar said, “No, I don’t think we should see it like a bad dream. Obviously, there’s a lot of reflection and thought about what we could’ve done better or changed. But honestly, I don’t think we played bad cricket.

“I’d say we were unfortunate at crucial moments, we dropped catches at key times. Cricket is like that, when opportunities come, if you don’t grab them, you fall behind. Those opportunities were ours, and the mistakes were ours too. So I think we should learn from them and move forward.

“Sometimes when you’re winning, even if you make small mistakes, they get ignored because you don’t focus too much on them. But when those same small moments hurt you badly, then you realize that if we hadn’t made those mistakes, we could’ve been in a completely different position.

“But that’s cricket, after every season, there are always regrets. What matters is whether you executed the plans your team made. If the answer is yes, then I think you should move on and look ahead,” he said.

Playing XIs:

Delhi Capitals: Abishek Porel, KL Rahul (wk), Sahil Parakh, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Axar Patel (captain), Ashutosh Sharma, Madhav Tiwari, Auqib Nabi, Mitchell Starc, and Lungi Ngidi

Impact Substitutes: Tripurana Vijay, Sameer Rizvi, Vipraj Nigam, Nitish Rana and Kuldeep Yadav

Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Tejasvi Dahiya, Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Saurabh Dubey, and Kartik Tyagi

Impact Substitutes: Finn Allen, Sarthak Ranjan, Vaibhav Arora, Ramandeep Singh and Rahul Tripathi

–IANS

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