Match details

Rajasthan Royals (second) vs Kolkata Knight Riders (first)
Guwahati, 1930 IST (1400 GMT)

Big picture - A dress rehearsal of the IPL final?

A week or two ago that question would have held more credence because of how KKR and RR had made the top two spots their own, that too with RR holding the top spot for a while.

RR had the winning mantra firmly in their hands for the first eight games out of nine, a pattern not new for them anymore. Last year they won five of their first eight before losing four of their remaining six to lose out on a playoff spot, and the year before that they had won six of their first eight and lost half of their remaining six to lose the top spot.

A win in their final league match against KKR will break that pattern, the losing streak and do wonders for their own confidence if they want to play the first qualifier instead of the eliminator.

Form guide

Rajasthan Royals LLLLW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Kolkata Knight Riders WWWWL

Previous meeting

Team news and impact player strategy

Rajasthan Royals
Tom Kohler-Cadmore will take Buttler's place at the top, like he did in their last game against Punjab Kings, in which they had subbed out Dhruv Jurel for Donovan Ferreira after they had slipped to 102 for 6. That may not be the case again on Sunday because Hetmyer had missed out that day but he is fit for Sunday and RR will be forced to change their combination. If it turns out to be a run-fest, RR may also want to think about bringing in a sixth bowling option against the power-packed KKR line-up.

Probable XII: 1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Tom Kohler-Cadmore, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 Riyan Parag, 5 Dhruv Jurel, 6 Shimron Hetmyer/Rovman Powell, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Trent Boult, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal, 12 Nandre Burger/Donovan Fereira/Keshav Maharaj

Kolkata Knight Riders
Salt is likely to be replaced by Rahmanullah Gurbaz as the opener, as was being expected for the washout match against GT. Their impact bowler coming in for a batter like Venkatesh Iyer could be Vaibhav Arora or Suyash Sharma, depending on whether the pitch favours more pace or turn.

Likely XII: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Nitish Rana, 4 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 5 Venkatesh Iyer, 6 Andre Russell, 7 Rinku Singh, 8 Ramandeep Singh, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Harshit Rana, 12 Vaibhav Arora/Suyash Sharma

In the spotlight - Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Rahmanullah Gurbaz

All eyes will be on the two replacement openers.

Stats that matter

Pitch and conditions

The Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati saw its first game of this IPL earlier this week when RR lost to PBKS after stumbling to 145 for 9. It had hosted three matches last IPL, and the average first-innings score since then is just 180. The temperature will range from 24 degrees to 31 degrees Celsius with lots of humidity and some rain and scattered thunderstorms expected in the evening.

Quotes

"We've batted first and won against two sides and chased and won as well. It's just a case of doing your job well. It's easy to say we should do this or that [after winning the toss]."
Rajasthan Royals director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara isn't too worried about their record batting first or second