If truth be told, Gujarat Titans don’t appear to have much of a chance in Qualifier 2 against Rajasthan Royals at the New Chandigarh Stadium on Friday night. Especially in light of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi‘s explosiveness this Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
The 15-year-old is just hell-bent on proving his doubters wrong. The other day in the Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad, he almost scored the fastest century in the history of the league.
Also Read: Can RR finally bury their playoff nightmare against GT after the horrors of the 2022 IPL?
Sooryavanshi is not the only devastating batter in RR, however. If somehow, GT are able to dispatch him early on, RR still have solid options to take them to a mammoth score. Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel. Riyan Parag, Dasun Shanaka and Donovan Ferreira can be equally damaging batsmen on their day. It has to be said that they have extraordinary firepower in their batting.
The same can’t be said about GT. They have some good batsmen like Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Josh Buttler in their ranks, but beyond them, there is not much hope. Frankly, Buttler is the only player in the team who can score a big and fast hundred, say at a strike rate of 250. The rest of them ain’t that fast. So, it’s clear, GT can’t beat RR purely on batting skills. It then has to be their bowling making the difference.
And they have some excellent bowlers in Purple Cap contender Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Rashid Khan and Jason Holder. They will have to come to the party if GT are to advance to the final against defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru, scheduled to be played in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
When these two teams played last time earlier this month, GT won by 77 runs. How did that happen? Because they bowled well. They scored 229 and bowled RR out for 152 in the 17th over with Rashid and Holder sharing seven wickets between them. The first match this season, however, had ended in RR’s win as chasing 211 to win, GT fell short by six runs. That reinforces the point that they are a good batting unit, but not a blazing force which is the need of the hour against RR.
Win toss and bat first!
GT appear a batting-first side. Even if they get something like 220, they can put pressure on the opposition and may even win, but say if RR bat first and score upwards of 240, the match will be as good as over. In Qualifier 1, RCB scored 254, and GT replied with 162 all out. Against Kolkata Knight Riders before, they conceded 247 before losing the contest by 19 runs. They were never really in the chase. One more piece of damning evidence!
To sum it up, if they win the toss, they should bat first, but if RR bat first, and in line with their reputation, end up putting around 250 on the board, there is no way GT can win from there. Even though anything can happen in cricket, it’s one thing that is highly unlikely to happen with GT.
As a footnote, GT have a better head-to-head record against RR at 7-3. The last time they played in the play-offs was in 2022, when they had beaten RR in Qualifier 1. They met in the final again, and again GT emerged victorious — in what was their debut season. Sometimes these past records can buoy a team greatly, and GT fans would hope that’s exactly how it turns out.
