Mumbai, May 6; Gujarat Titans’ on-song top three will face a stern test against Mumbai Indians’ potent bowling attack when the two teams that are favourites to reach the Indian Premier League playoffs clash here on Tuesday.With the best Net Run Rate among all teams, third-placed MI need two wins from remaining three matches to ensure a direct spot in the final four. The five-time winners will play two of these games at home, where they have won four out of five matches.
GT, who are ranked fourth, have four matches left of which two will be at their home-ground in Ahmedabad where they too have won four out of five times. The Shubman Gill-led side essentially needs two more wins to sail into the playoffs.
The top order troika of B Sai Sudharsan (504 runs), Jos Buttler (470) and skipper Gill (465) have dominated the tournament like no other, setting up many a wins for the Titans.
But the outcome of Tuesday’s contest could be determined by how they perform against arguably the best bowling attack in the competition with Trent Boult (16 wickets), Hardik Pandya (13), Jasprit Bumrah (11) and Deepak Chahar (9) ensuring tough times for opposition batters.
Ever since MI began their winning streak, which has swelled to an impressive six matches on the trot, they have not conceded a total in excess of 200 either at home or away even once.
It is enough to ring alarm bells in the Titans’ camp, whose winning formula has largely been based on piling up heavy totals batting first.
But MI will also be wary of Titans’ impeccable record while chasing as they have won each of their three games batting second by heavy margins.
But while GT’s top three have dominated the batting charts, the others naturally have not got much time in the middle barring Sherfane Rutherford (201 runs), which means MI’s bowlers would look to strike hard and early in order to gain the upper-hand.
Only three seasons ago, Hardik led the Titans to a title win in their maiden appearance but this year, he is at the helm of Mumbai Indians’ robust revival after early blips which included a loss to GT in Ahmedabad.
Perhaps no other all-rounder in the tournament has floated through his roles and performed as admirably as Pandya (157 runs, 13 wickets), providing MI with a lot of spunk.
Rohit Sharma’s (293 runs) readiness to switch gears in the middle to build long innings and Suryakumar Yadav (475) getting into his elements are indeed the greatest worrying signs for MI’s opponent.
Ryan Rickelton (334) has banished a slow start for impressive scores of late while taking pressure off Rohit to attack first up. Will Jacks is also getting into his rhythm as an all-rounder while Tilak Varma (239) and Naman Dhir (155) provide solidity to that batting line-up.
To their credit, Gujarat Titans’ bowlers have also done a splendid job in the absence of Kagiso Rabada, who has linked back after admitting that he served provisional suspension for recreational drug use earlier this year. It is not yet clear whether he can play the upcoming games as the length of his suspension is still not known.