DISCLAIMER : copyright disclaimer under section 107 of the copyright act 1976, Allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism,comment,news,reporting ,teaching,scholarship,and research. fair use is permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infirnging . non - profit , educational or personal use tips the balance in favour or fair use. DC vs KKR, IPL 2021 25TH MATCH - LIVE CRICKET SCORE PITCH REPORT: Kevin Pietersen has his eyes on the pitch. He reckons the surface looks similar to the previous contests played here. However, a key difference is upon the grass being laid out all the way upto danger zone. Pietersen assumes it is because the curator wants to ensure the bowlers are comfortable while delivering the ball. There was the dew factor in game one, and then we had a sandstorm and no dew in the other. So the captains will have a tricky selection up at the Toss. TOSS TIME Delhi Capitals win toss, elect to bowl first Pant: In the second innings, there might be dew. Last game we thought there would be dew, but it didn't come. One change: Mishra has some shoulder injury and Lalit is back. Morgan: Would have liked to chase. Ultimately, we need to play well and momentum will be big here and in the coming games in Ahmedabad. It's nice to get some runs under the belt albeit some small contribution. We haven't made any changes and it looks our strongest XI on paper right now. Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Sunil Narine, Eoin Morgan(c), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik(w), Pat Cummins, Shivam Mavi, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Steven Smith, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Kagiso Rabada, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan Kolkata Knight Riders Four points from six games is not a reflection of the quality in KKR’s squad, and they’d know it. An under firing top order, a just-back-to-form captain Eoin Morgan, and an Andre Russell who is more often than not wasted in the lower order. And a bowling unit that has been far too inconsistent. This sums up KKR’s woes in IPL 2021. However, there were signs that those are being corrected. The bowlers picked themselves up against PBKS, bowling them out cheaply. The pacers set it up – Shivam Mavi, Pat Cummins and Prasidh Krishna used the early conditions. And then Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine did their thing. Delhi Capitals Delhi Capitals have no need to panic after a loss to RCB, but they could have learnt some lessons. Rishabh Pant’s captaincy – and batting approach – is under the scanner. He didn’t bowl out Amit Mishra and gave the last over to Marcus Stoinis, who was taken down by AB de Villiers. Pant then made an unbeaten 58 off 48, struggling to get his big shots going. Will he be feeling the heat of captaincy a little? While all eyes are on Pant, DC might look to tinker with their batting at some stage. Shimron Hetmyer showed what he can do, but he is batting too low down the order currently, not getting enough balls to make an impact. Will we see that changing in the coming games? - MATCH PREVIEW - A one run defeat despite two explosive batsmen out at the middle. Credit the opposition bowlers, but Rishabh Pant and Shimron Hetmyer would have backed themselves to march over the finishing line. Delhi Capitals has looked solid through its campaign, however, not without a couple of blips along the way. A mercurial Pant leading the troops has been a fresh sight. The unpredictability of it, however, meant Delhi had to put up with the fact of giving away 23 runs in the final over against RCB - eventually playing its part in the result. As for the Knights, the plans fell eventually into place as a concerted bowling effort meant that Morgan's men finally snapped a string of four losses. The skipper would be more than happy to have regained form after he led the tricky chase against Punjab Kings on Monday with an unbeaten 47. Kolkata will be hoping for a restart to its playoffs bid from here and the bruised Capitals would not be an easy challenge. Numbers Game *Birthday boy Andre Russell needs nine runs to reach 6000 T20 runs. He will become the fastest to 6000 runs in terms of balls faced. *Amit Mishra could feature in his 100th IPL match, becoming the first Delhi Capitals cricketer to the milestone. *Eoin Morgan needs 36 runs to reach 1000 IPL runs for Kolkata Knight Riders. *Dinesh Karthik needs 68 runs to reach 4000 IPL runs. *Axar Patel could make his 100th IPL appearance and is 87 runs away from 1000 runs in IPL. *Steve Smith could make his 100th IPL appearance and is 87 runs away from 2500 IPL runs. *KKR has lost four of its last five meetings against Delhi Capitals.