New Chandigarh, May 29 (IANS) An unchanged Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bat first against the Gujarat Titans in the Qualifier 2 clash at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh on Friday. There was a re-spin of the toss by match referee Prakash Bhatt as the call wasn’t loud enough from RR captain Riyan Parag.

The winner of this clash will meet Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final, to be played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday. RR arrive in Qualifier 2 after beating Sunrisers Hyderabad by 47 runs in the Eliminator, while GT come in after suffering a 92-run loss to RCB in Qualifier 1 in Dharamshala.

After winning the toss, RR skipper Riyan Parag said, “Pretty much the same wicket, but I think it slows down at the backend, and we have the bowlers for it. We just need to play better cricket for 40 overs, and the best team will win. The support staff have been incredible about recoveries and injuries.”

GT skipper Shubman Gill said left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore is back in the playing eleven in place of Kulwant Khejroliya. “We would have batted first as well. Forty overs of cricket already on this wicket, and it won’t behave differently. We have everything to play for; it’s a now or never situation.”

Playing XIs:

Gujarat Titans: B Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (captain), Jos Buttler (wk), Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, R Sai Kishore, Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, and Mohammed Siraj

Impact substitutes: Rahul Tewatia, Glenn Phillips, Anuj Rawat, Kumar Kushagra, and Arshad Khan

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (captain), Donovan Ferreira, Dasun Shanaka, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma, and Yash Raj Punja

Impact substitutes: Shubham Dubey, Sushant Mishra, Aman Rao Perala, Ravi Bishnoi, and Tushar Deshpande

–IANS

nr/bsk/