Lucknow, April 27 (IANS): Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson elected to field first against Lucknow Super Giants in Match 44 of IPL 2024 at the Ekana Stadium here on Saturday.

RR decided to go into the match with an unchanged playing XI with Samson saying that the season has been a bit different with the gap in between games and that that should help them while being on the road.

Rajasthan Royals are perched at the top of the points table, with 14 points, for more than the next best. LSG are fourth with 10 points, the same as Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

He claimed that they are following some good processes as a unit and are focussing on their strengths while being aware of their weaknesses.

Home captain K.L. Rahul had no issue with batting first as he reckoned the wicket was pretty good, and that there has not been much dew at the venue, leading to an even contest across 40 overs.

He said it was important to get off to a good start and put runs on the board now that they were batting first. He felt a score of 200-plus would be nice but conceded the dimensions of the ground do work in the bowler's favour and make the game more interesting.

LSG too are going into the match with an unchanged side.

Playing XIs:

Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (c/wk), Quinton de Kock, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Krunal Pandya, Matt Henry, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Yash Thakur

Substitutes: Amit Mishra, Arshin Kulkarni, K. Gowtham, M Siddharth, Yudhvir Singh

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler Sanju Samson (c/wk), Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, R. Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal

Substitutes: Riyan Parag, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Shubham Dubey, Navdeep Saini, Tanush Kotian.