Having won one game each in the first couple of encounters of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans will look to seize these early momentum when they take on each other in an afternoon game at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
The SRH, fresh from registering the highest IPL total of 277/3 against Mumbai Indians will hope for another batting masterclass against a Gujarat Titans bowling line-up that clearly looked weak in the absence of Mohammed Shami.
The Sunrisers’ total of 277/3 against Mumbai on Wednesday took them past the previous record IPL total of 263/5 set by Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in 2013.
As such, the Orange Brigade will be hoping for a similar opening from Australia World Cup winner Travis Head, who smashed the fastest fifty for the franchise, taking 18 balls for the milestone to give them an explosive start before the feat was bettered by uncapped Indian Abhishek Sharma who got to his fifty in just 16 balls.
In the middle order, Sunrisers have the luxury of arguably the best T20 batter in Henrich Klaasen, who demolished the MI attack with his batting pyrotechnics and smoked a 34-ball unbeaten 80, leaving his South African teammate Aiden Markram a mere spectator, despite scoring a brisk 40.
SRH have a potent bowling attack led by the Australian World Cup winning skipper Pat Cummins, who came up with a two-wicket burst to leave MI struggling despite a brisk start during the chase. The presence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and the likes of Umran Malik add variety to their pace attack while their spin bowling resources include Shahbaz Ahmed and Mayank Markande.
On the other hand, Gujarat Titans will hope to get back to winning ways, especially after the morale-crushing 63-run beating at the hands of Chennai Super Kings in their previous encounter. The loss to the five-time IPL champions affected their net run rate as it plummeted to -1.425, worst among the league’s 10 teams, which could cause some problems towards the business end of the tournament.
The Titans would seek course-correction in their approach after being left clueless at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, and thus would expect their new skipper Shubman Gill to showcase his leadership skills. Back in their den, where they beat MI in their IPL 2024 campaign opener, GT, who entered the finals in both the previous seasons, and won the crown in 2022, would expect Gill to lead them from the front with his batting.
One among the top and middle order comprising Gill, Wriddhiman Saha, Sai Sudharsan would be expected to raise their hand with the bat, and give them the impetus for the likes of David Miller and Rahul Tewatia to finish things off.
In the bowling department, Umesh Yadav hasn’t been able to match the injured Shami and that is proving to be a worrying factor for the Titans. Star spinner Rashid Khan has delivered in patches, but it would interesting to see whether he manages to stop another carnage from the likes of Klaasen and Head on Sunday.