(Cricket news) Rajasthan Royals and Gujarat Titans will be looking to make 4 wins out of 5 as little separates both the teams after four games in this year’s IPL are tied on 6 points with three wins and a loss. Both the captains have won just the one toss as RR are yet to chase in the tournament. In the last match, GT were outplayed by Kane Williamson’s side and will be looking to bounce back in style by going top of the table.
Gujarat Titans had all their bases covered till the last match where Lockie Ferguson proved to be expensive but the GT team management have found a perfect balance in the bowling area with Mohammed Shami getting the new ball to move around, Rashid Khan has four bankable overs and Hardik Pandya is completing his quota. The only area of concern in the bowling department is the fifth bowler as Darshan Nalkande is relatively inexperienced and Rahul Tewatia hasn’t bowled much over the last year or so. In the batting department the two overseas left handers have been disappointing as Matthew Wade is not being able to give his side those blistering starts that he used to give Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash and David Miller although hasn’t come out to bat much, he needs to prove his mantle by finishing the innings. Wriddhiman Saha, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Alzarri Joseph and Dominic Drakes are among the players who can replace them.
Rajasthan Royals are enjoying one of the best starts to the season after a long time as the team is finally performing as a collective unit. RR's pacers have picked up 8 wickets, averaging 14.25, Prasidh Krishna and Trent Boult have formed a good partnership with the ball as both of the bowlers are picking up wickets at regular intervals. Young quick Kuldeep Sen showed on his debut why he is rated highly by the RR management and cricketing experts, after he successfully defended 14 runs in the final over bowling to Marcus Stoinis. RR’s batting has been on fire courtesy of Josh Butler and Shimron Hetmyer, both have scored 218 and 168 respectively and both of them are averaging above 70. Both the spinners Chahal and Ashwin will fancy their chance to break into the middle order early as Miller has got out thrice by both the spinners.
Pitch and weather report: The DY Patil stadium experienced a run fest in the last match, with the wicket being so dry that the dust on it was palpable. The spinners played a massive part as they took wickets at regular intervals, we can expect the same thing this match. The temperature is going to hover around 32 degrees, with no chance of rain.
Interesting facts:
- Only Bumrah has taken more wickets than the duo of Rashid Khan and Yuzvendra Chahal in the middle overs, the two spinners sit on top of the wicket charts.
- Hetmyer has the second-highest strike-rate in death overs. He strikes at 195.95 with a boundary percentage of 27.3.
- Rashid is one strike away from becoming the fourth overseas player to 100 IPL wickets
- Buttler (15) and Hetmyer (14) are the top six-hitters of the competition
- Royals for the first time in franchise history, have both the Orange Cap holder [Buttler] and Purple Cap holder [Chahal].
Also read: PBKS hand MI 5th consecutive defeat courtesy of Dhawan and Agarwal
Probable XI for GT:
1 Shubman Gill, 2 Matthew Wade/Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 Sai Sudharsan, 4 Hardik Pandya (capt), 5 David Miller, 6 Abhinav Manohar, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Darshan Nalkande
Probable XI for RR:
1 Jos Buttler, 2 Devdutt Padikkal, 3 Sanju Samson (capt, wk), 4 Rassie van der Dussen, 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Trent Boult, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Kuldeep Sen
