New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) Three-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have won the toss and elected to bowl first against Delhi Capitals (DC), who have brought in pacer Mukesh Kumar and leg-spin bowling all-rounder in match 51 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Friday.

Friday’s clash is a high-stakes one, considering DC are looking to break a four-match losing streak at home. KKR, meanwhile, are chasing their fourth win on the bounce. With the race to the playoffs tightening, a win for either of the two teams will put them slightly alive in the race to the playoffs.

After winning the toss, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane said his playing eleven is unchanged. “In the last three games, it’s important to see the wicket and play accordingly. It’s difficult to read the wicket; we have to play good cricket. When we had a break, the mood was great, and the players were doing well,” he said.

DC skipper Axar Patel said Mukesh and Vipraj come in for T. Natarajan and Karun Nair, respectively, with Kuldeep Yadav likely to come into the bowling innings as an impact player, provided the hosts don’t suffer a top-order batting implosion yet again.

“Nothing like that for me, batting first or bowling, that thought is not in our hands. So, as a team, you should be ready whether it’s batting first or bowling first. You just have to be on your toes from the very first ball; that is very important.

Talking about the changes to the playing combination, Axar said, “As much as I have played on Delhi wickets, I feel there isn’t too much spin, but because of a little slowness, the ball comes a bit slower after pitching. So I think spinners get a little help. As far as seamers are concerned, they mostly use slower bouncers and slower balls more on these wickets. So I thought of using a combination of three spinners and three fast bowlers.”

“Whoever plays here are professional cricketers, and everyone has played international cricket too. So there aren’t that many tactical changes. If you bowl a good ball in the right area, then that ball remains a good ball. If you bowl a bad ball, then obviously, even if you see long boundaries, batsmen still hit sixes there too, you know, even 90 meters. So I feel that instead of focusing on the boundary size, you should focus on your own good bowling. Winning with good balls is very important,” he said.

Friday’s clash will be played on pitch number six, where the Punjab Kings chased down 265 in the afternoon clash on April 25. On the pitch conditions, former England batter Nick Knight said the surface remains difficult to read, while ex-New Zealand wicketkeeper-batter Katey Martin noted the grass has now disappeared and the pitch looks better, with dry cracks opening up. “I don’t expect much seam movement or extra bounce. It looks like it will play slow, favouring spin bowlers and pace‑off deliveries,” she said.

Playing XIs:

Delhi Capitals: Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul (wk), Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, Axar Patel (captain), Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Lungi Ngidi, and Mukesh Kumar

Impact substitutes: Kuldeep Yadav, Karun Nair, Abishek Porel, T Natarajan, and David Miller

Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (captain), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Kartik Tyagi, Vaibhav Arora, and Varun Chakaravarthy

Impact substitutes: Finn Allen, Ramandeep Singh, Tejasvi Singh Dahiya, Navdeep Saini, and Tim Seifert

–IANS

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