[Watch] Bizarre scenes as KKR vs RCB game begins with confusion at toss
The high-octane encounter between the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) got off to a bit of a confusing start due to an error in judgment by the match referee at the toss.
KKR skipper Nitish Rana tossed the coin and Faf du Plessis called heads. Although it came down as heads, the match referee heard that the RCB skipper had called it tails and claimed that Rana had won the toss.
However, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar was present there as a presenter and he cleared the misunderstanding by letting the referee know that Faf du Plessis had called it right. After all the confusion, Nitish Rana acknowledged the decision and Du Plessis decided to bowl first.
The excitement among the crowd at Eden Gardens was so high that the noise they made in the stadium probably made it tougher for the referee to hear the call from the visiting skipper. Here's a video of the confusion:
KKR will need to score big to challenge RCB
Although the Knight Riders are playing at the Eden Gardens after almost four years, they might have had an indication of how the pitch would play from their practice sessions.
Traditionally, the pitch has been good for batting with nice pace and bounce. This makes it imperative for them to post a strong total on the board. RCB showed in their first game just how good they are as chasers and the hosts would want to set a target of 200+.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Shahbaz Ahmed, Glenn Maxwell, Michael Bracewell, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Harshal Patel, David Willey, Mohammed Siraj, Karn Sharma, Akash Deep.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Mandeep Singh, Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy.