Daijiworld Media Network

Pune, May 8: Welcome to the match between Pune and Rajasthan from Pune. Rajasthan will head into this match with a lot of confidence after they comfortably defeated Punjab. Pune, on the other hand, are on a five match losing streak and will be desperate to win today. The contest between Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid will also be an interesting one.

Pune Warriors have won the toss and elected to bat

Ganguly: We have to win but the results haven't gone our way until now. The pitch looks very good. We pushed Dinda in the last few games but he is part of the India A squad and he needs some rest to get fit now. Nehra comes in to the side in place of him.

Dravid: My batting is going well so far. If you have momentum and form then you just need to keep it going in the T20 format. Watson makes a huge difference to our side, he is a great cricketer, who bats, bowls and fields and adds a lot of leadership value as well. It is nice to pair up against Sourav again and play against him. We know a lot about each other. I would have liked to have batted first as well, but it looks like a good wicket so it should stay the same. Hodge misses out today unfortunately due to an injury and Owais Shah comes in.

Mathews: The crowd has been fantastic and they have been behind us right from the start. The beauty of the IPL is that so many international players share the same dressing room. Every game is important for us and we need to play the next four games positively and look to win.

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Rahul Dravid(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Shane Watson, Owais Shah, Ashok Menaria, Johan Botha, Stuart Binny, Dishant Yagnik(w), Ankeet Chavan, Siddharth Trivedi, Shaun Tait

Pune Warriors (Playing XI): Robin Uthappa(w), Michael Clarke, Steven Smith, Sourav Ganguly(c), Angelo Mathews, Mithun Manhas, Anustup Majumdar, Wayne Parnell, Murali Kartik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra