Desperately looking to arrest their roller-coaster run in IPL 2024, Gujarat Titans will be hoping to find some momentum going their way when they host a resurgent Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Sunday’s afternoon game in Ahmedabad.
Having lost their previous match against Delhi Capitals, the Titans find themselves at the seventh position on the IPL points table with eight points from nine matches, and a victory over RCB will keep themselves in the race for the play-offs.
For that, the Titans will be desperately hoping that their bowling unit delivers the goods, especially after the merciless thrashing at the hands of the DC batters. Their pace unit led by Mohit Sharma (10 wickets, economy: 10.35) and Umesh Yadav (7 wickets, 10.55), and also comprising the likes of Sandeep Warrier (5 wickets, 10.85), Spencer Johnson and Azmatullah Omarzai haven’t been able to put up a collective effort to support their batting unit.
The Titans’ spinners – Rashid Khan (8 wickets), R Sai Kishore and Noor Ahmad (6 wickets each), however, have been their main weapons so far, and will expect the troika to do an encore against the hard-hitting RCB batting line-up, especially spin-hitters like Rajat Patidar and Cameron Green.
Patidar rubbed off the dust from his willow in the previous two games to slam impactful fifties against Kolkata Knight Riders and SRH’ quality spin units, and will be eager to use his brute force against the GT spinners. While his 23-ball 52 nearly carried RCB home against KKR that boasts of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, his 20-ball 50 came in a winning cause against Hyderabad.
Green, too was impressive during his 20-ball 37 against the Sunrisers that took RCB past the 200-run mark. The return to form of the duo has reduced the burden on the lower order, comprising Dinesh Karthik, Mahipal Lomror for a late order burst, and also took the pressure off from the opening combo of Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis to do the heavy-lifting from ball one.
RCB’s new-found batting template can also work for the opposition, whose batting has mainly revolved around contributions from skipper Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan, making three combined fifties but the middle-order is yet to fire in unison. The likes of David Miller (138 runs), Shahrukh Khan (30), Vijay Shankar (73) and Rahul Tewatia (153) have been impressive in patches but are yet to single-handedly win matches.
The GT middle order would be expected to pull up their socks if they are to match up against RCB’s new-found sting in their bowling attack, that left the high-flying SRH top order down on their knees while defending 207 in Hyderabad.
The RCB received a much-needed shot in their arm after their frontline pacers Mohammed Siraj (4-0-20-0) and Yash Dayal (3-0-18-1) finally came of age, and got the right support from the back-up bowlers in Karn Sharma, and Cameron Green picking four wickets among them to tame the SRH at home.
Still tottering at the bottom of the points tally with two wins from nine games, the late resurgence of RCB could hurt quite a few play-off hopefuls. Will GT be one of them, let’s wait for the action to unfold on Sunday.