🏏IPL 2023: Match 48 - GT vs RR on 05/05/2023 at 7:30 PM IST 🏏 - Page 2

Team Watch

Rajasthan Royals

Injury/Unavailability: No new niggles reported

Tactics & Match-ups: Trent Boult has had the wood over GT's struggling opener Wriddhiman Saha, dismissing him thrice in 24 balls and giving away just 22 runs.

Probable XI: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Jason Holder, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma

In their last home game, RR used left-arm pacer Kuldip Yadav as the impact sub in the absence of Trent Boult, who was out with a niggle. In the game that Boult returned (against MI in Wankhede), Kuldeep Sen - the right-arm quick - was the sub but bowled just one over for 20 runs. It could be one of these two quicks swapping in, in this fixture.

Through the middle-overs, Chahal will be key against GT skipper Hardik Pandya, who has been batting at one-drop lately. While Hardik has favourable numbers against the impressive R Ashwin (64 off 43 balls, 0 dismissals), he has found it tough to put away the leg-spinner (48 runs off 57 balls, 3 dismissals). Ashwin however, can tie down the left-handed David Miller, who only scores at a measly 112.33 against him.

Gujarat Titans

Injury/Unavailability: This could be Joshua Little's last game this season before joining the national squad for the ODI series against Bangladesh in England that begins from May 9.

Tactics & Match-ups: Denying RR the chance to lay the PowerPlay platform through Buttler should be GT's top-priority, and for that they have the leading wicket-taker this season Mohammed Shami. The fast bowler also has the most wickets in the PowerPlay this season (12), four more than the next best Mohammed Siraj.

By his lofty standards, Buttler has had a quiet season, which GT will hope to extend on Friday. Buttler has scored 79 off 62 balls against Shami at a strike rate of 127.42, which are modest numbers by his lofty standards. Shami has also dismissed him twice - including in the reverse fixture last month for a five-ball duck.

Shami is also the man for GT to deal with RR's finisher Shimron Hetmyer. The West Indian has been dismissed four times in the 24 balls he's faced against him and has scored just 17 runs. For Sanju Samson, GT's go-to bowler has to be Rashid Khan who has conceded runs at just 117.20. To put that in perspective, the RR captain scores at a strike rate of 186.21 and 156.67 against Shami and Hardik Pandya.

Probable XI: Wriddihman Saha, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed, Joshua Little, Mohammed Shami

Based on what happens at the toss, either of Shubman Gill or Mohit Sharma will be the impact substitute [Gill if they bowl first, Mohit if they bat first].

Did you know:

- Shami, the leading wicket-taker this season, has picked 18 wickets in 13 outings against RR

- Saha has struggled against left-arm pacers this season - scoring 42 off 30 balls faced and getting out thrice.

- Jaipur has been the spinners' ally in the two matches so far - they have picked 9 wickets in 33 overs at a strike rate of 22 and economy rate of 7.72. Pacers meanwhile have 11 wickets in 47 overs at a strike rate of 25.63 and economy rate of 8.47

Sawai Mansingh Stats

Matches Played 49

Number of wins batting first 17

Number of wins batting second 32

Average First Innings score 158.5

Average powerplay Score 45.1

Average death overs score 46.6

Yaar kya boring matches hai.

Don't forget to send your predictions for Match 48

Date: 05/05/2023

Deadline for toss prediction: 7:00PM IST

Deadline for rest of the predictions: 7:30PM IST

Make sure you hit "Submit prediction" button for initial predictions and "Update Prediction" button after making any subsequent changes to register your predictions.

BATTERS TO WATCH(recent stats)

Yashasvi Jaiswal, RR

10 M • 450 Runs • 45 Avg • 158.45 SR

Jos Buttler, RR

10 M • 328 Runs • 32.80 Avg • 134.97 SR

Shubman Gill, GT

10 M • 384 Runs • 42.66 Avg • 135.21 SR

Hardik Pandya, GT

9 M • 247 Runs • 30.87 Avg • 116.50 SR

BOWLERS TO WATCH(recent stats)

Ravichandran Ashwin, RR

10 M • 13 Wkts • 7.48 Econ • 18 SR

Yuzvendra Chahal, RR

10 M • 13 Wkts • 8.08 Econ • 17.07 SR

Mohammed Shami, GT

10 M • 18 Wkts • 7.17 Econ • 13 SR

Rashid Khan, GT

10 M • 16 Wkts • 8.15 Econ • 15 SR

Post for Pitch Report from the ground closer to the game.

Edited to add:

Pitch report: 63m and 68m hits to the square boundaries, 78m down the ground. I don't think this is the easiest pitch to sum up. There are some bare patches, but there are spots where there is a good covering of grass too. May not be two paced, but could play low generally. Decent picth, 170-180 kind I would say. Last couple of matches we didn't have dew, so might as well bat first, opine Nick Knight and Deep Dasgupta

List of Playing 11 and subs when they are announced

Edited to add:

Teams:

Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Wriddhiman Saha(w), Hardik Pandya(c), Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohit Sharma, Noor Ahmad, Mohammed Shami, Joshua Little

Gujarat Titans Subs: Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Srikar Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore

Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Adam Zampa, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal

Rajasthan Royals Subs: Murugan Ashwin, Joe Root, Riyan Parag, Kuldip Yadav, KM Asif

Thanks for the tag.

Today s match will be very nice... looking forward to it.

Thank you, Raji, for the thread and for tagging me. 🤗

This year, most of the matches are fetching result only in the last over 5th or 6th ball!

Another interesting match we are going to watch tonight.