Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL)
Seventh-placed Gujarat Titans will host a partially resurgent, but last-placed Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Ahmedabad in the 45th match of IPL 2024.
Gujarat Titans’s last match ended in a loss to Delhi Capitals for them, as Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel scored fifties and powered DC to 224 at Delhi before Sai Sudharsan and David Miller responded in kind but GT could only manage 220 and lost by an agonising 4 runs.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru, beleaguered by a six-match losing streak, managed to crawl back with a surprise win against SRH at Hyderabad. RCB were powered by fifties from Rajat Patidar and Virat Kohli helped with a cameo from Cameron Green sent RCB to 206. RCB’s bowlers then took over in a rarely-seen team effort led by Swapnil Singh and Karn Sharma and won the match for their team by a healthy 35 runs.
Both teams are languishing in the bottom four of the table and will want to consolidate some respectability to their respective campaigns in IPL 2024.
Also Check: IPL 2024 Points Table
Narendra Modi Stadium Pitch Report:
Ahmedabad has been a very slow pitch compared to all other stadiums. In four matches so far, 200 has been scored only once, and that was when PBKS pulled off a freak chase against GT. There is no reason that this would change for this game. In fact, in the most recent game here, Gujarat Titans themselves folded for a very paltry 89 and totals even above 170 so far seem like a rarity in a season overloaded with 250+ totals.
IPL Stats & Records at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
17 matches out of 31 have been won chasing here, and GT have famously declared proficiency in that phase of the match. The average first innings total here is 172.
31
Matches Won Batting First
14
Matches Won Batting Second
17
Matches Won Winning Toss
15
Matches Won Losing Toss
16
Matches With No Result
0
Highest Team Total
233/3
Lowest Team Total
89
Average First Innings Total
172
Highest Total Successfully Chased
205
GT vs RCB Strategies and Match-ups:
Chasing seems to be the go-to option at Ahmedabad. Both the teams will keep an eye on this possibility, and with RCB’s bowling having got some confidence, GT’s collapse-prone batting will face a stern test, and that innings should be the most noteworthy phase of the match. The important matchups for this contest are: Rajat Patidar vs Rashid Khan, Mohammed Siraj vs Shubman Gill, David Miller vs Lockie Ferguson, and Noor Ahmad vs Faf du Plessis.
Player Battles to Watch Out For:
Mohammed Siraj vs Shubman Gill:
GT skipper Gill has scored 55 runs in 33 balls at a strike rate of 166.67. Gill has never been dismissed by Siraj and this battle in the powerplay is very important.
Also Check: IPL Orange Cap- Most Runs
Faf du Plessis vs Noor Ahmad:
This player battle may not really be extensive but holds importance nonetheless. So far, Noor Ahmad has bowled 3 balls to the RCB skipper and has dismissed him once. du Plessis has only managed two runs at an average of 2 and a strike rate of 66.67 against the spinner from Afghanistan.
X-Factors for GT vs RCB:
Gujarat Titans:
On a spin-friendly surface, Rashid Kha, arguably the best T20 bowler in the world, will have a huge role to play against RCB’s batters who are rather infamous for being vulnerable to spin. If Rashid can win the important player battles, then GT will sprint ahead in this match.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru:
RCB’s batting lineup is infamously vulnerable to spin. The most notable exception to this is Rajat Patidar whose attacks on spin are the reason RCB got as close as they did against KKR and actually managed to win against SRH.