It's playoffs time as Gujarat take on Rajasthan in the first qualifier

The knock-outs are finally upon us as the Gujarat Titans are all set to engage in a heated battle against the Rajasthan Royals to determine the first IPL 2022 finalist. Both the sides will be coming into this encounter on the back of some phenomenal form that saw them finishing the group stages in the top two places.

Gujarat will be contemplating getting their campaign back on track after a shocking defeat at the hands of the Royal Challengers Bangalore where Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis would come together to lay waste to the Titans' bowling line-up.

The Royals have played a couple of brilliant games to secure a top 2 berth, trumping over the Super Giants and the Super Kings in consecutive games. They have had some reliable batting to back them while their bowlers have been kissing heights regularly.

The Royals are more reliant on their bowling unit which has been led well by the duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Trent Boult. However, their batting unit comprises a certain Jos Buttler who has been in sublime form throughout the length of the tournament.

Venue Watch:

The first two playoff games will be played at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata, a surface that has historically had too much to offer to the batters and on occasions for the spinners. The pacers can barely wring out anything of the surface as the track is mostly flat and hardly has any bounce or carry at all. However, the turners would make merry as there will be ample turn until dew kicks in. The average batting score at Eden Gardens batting first in T20 is 155 while in the second innings, the numbers stoop to 136, insinuating that this would be a very closely contested stramash where a total of 160 can be pretty much defendable.

Squads:

Rajasthan Royals:

Sanju Samson, Jos Buttler (R), Yashasvi Jaiswal (R), R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Riyan Parag, KC Cariappa, Navdeep Saini, Obed McCoy, Arunay Singh, Kuldeep Sen, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Tejas Baroka, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubham Garhwal, James Neesham, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rassie Van Der Dussen, Daryl Mitchell

Gujarat Titans:

Hardik Pandya, Shubman Gill, Rashid Khan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Mohammad Shami, Lockie Ferguson, Abhinav Sadarangani, Rahul Tewatia, Noor Ahmad, R Sai Kishore, Dominic Drakes, Jayant Yadav, Vijay Shankar, Darshan Nalkande, Yash Dayal, Alzarri Joseph, Pradeep Sangwan, David Miller, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Gurkeerat Singh, Varun Aaron.

Match Details:

Gujarat Titans vs Rajasthan Royals

Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata

Date: 24th May 2022

Time: 7:30 PM IST