Titans eye play-offs while Punjab desperate to keep their campaign afloat

Table-toppers Gujarat Titans will return to action again as they take on the Punjab Kings hoping to keep their remarkable winning streak alive, the rarest of feat for an IPL newbie. Punjab, on the contrary, will be hoping to move mountains as their campaign hangs by a slender string of hope.

The Titans have come out as the most balanced side of the fray with eight wins from nine games so far. They have struck an electric chemistry that has worked wonders in their favour, helping them demolish well-established contenders of the fray.

The Punjab Kings, on the contrary, have resorted to the old-school technique of going all guns blazing with eight hitters in their side, for whom getting slow feels like a nefarious felony. The team has banked upon hard-hitting and it has produced mixed results so far.

The Titans will be coming to this contest on the back of a thrilling victory against the Royal Challengers Bangalore where Rahul Tewatia and David Miller held onto their nerves to deliver them to the gates of a fine win after some momentous oscillation in the middle. Their bowlers did well to contain the RCB batters till the 17th over before Maxwell and Lomror came out in full swing.

For Punjab, they will have to pick themselves up and shake off the dirt as they suffered another crushing defeat to the Lucknow Super Giants. Their batters had another disappointing outing despite their bowlers pulling off a remarkable job of confining the Giants to a modest 153.

This is going to be an interesting contest, considering the totally contrasting stances that these two teams have deployed. For Punjab it is relentless hard-hitting that will consign the cherry to the ropes while for the Titans it is a cold, calculated and extreme chemistry that will break the game into parts.

Venue Watch:

The only surface that has shown a slight inclination towards the bowlers in the ongoing edition of the tournament out of the four venues that have been used, Dr. DY Patil Stadium will be hosting the two forces clawing away at each other. The surface has a slight tint of green on it that will provide some room for the bowlers to produce rippers if they know the exact line and length to strike. For the batters, it will be a moderate going with some sharp movement of the ball. However, the second half of the game may get slightly easier for the batters. The last game that was played here witnessed Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians playing out a thrilling affair that had modest scores on the card with Mumbai successfully chasing down 159 only in the final over of the game.

Squads:

Punjab Kings:

Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Odean Smith, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Ishan Porel, Sandeep Sharma, Atharva Taide, Vaibhav Arora, Ansh Patel, Raj Angad Bawa, Benny Howell, Rishi Dhawan, Bhanuka Rajapaksa (wk), Baltej Singh, Writtick Chatterjee, Nathan Ellis, Prerak Mankad.

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 Punjab Kings

Venue: Dr DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai

Date: 3rd May 2022

Time: 7:30 PM IST