🏏IPL 2023: Match 62 - GT vs SRH on 15/05/2023 at 7:30 PM IST 🏏

🏏IPL 2023: Match 62 - GT vs SRH at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on 15/05/2023 at 7:30 PM IST 🏏

Tag & Logo Credit: Sevenstreaks

Titans a win away from playoffs berth, SRH hanging by a thread. Hardik Pandya's men have pretty much everything going their way unlike Sunrisers. Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad at opposite ends

Monday evening in Ahmedabad could see one team make the playoffs in successive years since it started playing in the IPL, and the other fall short of it for the third time in a row. If Gujarat Titans win, they will be the first team this season to qualify for the playoffs - they will do so with a game in hand - while Sunrisers Hyderabad will be eliminated with two matches remaining.

But even if Sunrisers happen to cause an upset, they will be barely alive, and dependent on other results for their own fortunes. Titans have been so good that two losses in their last four matches have also kept them at the top of the table. Sunrisers have had exactly the same run in as many previous games, but had been erratic enough before that to now find themselves ninth.

The hosts have pretty much everything going their way: a solid opening pair, an in-form middle order, finishers on fire, and the highest wicket-taker of the season so far. Contrast that with Sunrisers' sliding campaign, and you can make out the difference between the sides: only one of their batters averages over 30 after a minimum of eight innings, and only one bowler has at least ten wickets, compared to four from Titans.

But Sunrisers know that a collective performance and a win against a settled side, whom they haven't faced this season, will not only keep their faint hopes flickering, but might also potentially disturb the equation for other teams.

Gujarat Titans vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Pitch Report

The pitch at the Narendra Modi Stadium is fast-paced. The pacers get plenty of assistance from the surface if they hit the right areas. The batters will have to be patient early in their innings. Once they spend some time in the middle, they can play their strokes freely.

Gujarat Titans vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Weather Forecast

Clear skies will greet both sides on Sunday. The temperature in Ahmedabad is expected to range between 29 and 42 degrees Celsius.

Pitch and conditions

Ahmedabad has had scores of 175 and above while batting first in five out of six matches so far. And Titans' two defeats at home have both pretty much been jailbreaks by the opposition: the first one fashioned by Rinku Singh, and the other by Ishant Sharma. As for the weather, it is expected to be hot and humid.

Form guide - (Last five completed matches, most recent first)

Gujarat Titans LWWLW

Sunrisers Hyderabad LWLWL

Team news: Little still away

Titans' left-arm quick Josh Little is still away on national duty, and is set to miss this match. Sunrisers should have all players available for selection.

Impact Player strategy

Titans swapped Mohit Sharma with Shubman Gill in their loss against Mumbai Indians, and are likely to continue with it depending on whether they bat or bowl first.

GT probable XII: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 Hardik Pandya (capt), 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 David Miller, 6 Abhinav Manohar, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Alzarri Joseph, 10 Noor Ahmad, 11 Mohammed Shami, 12 Mohit Sharma

Sunrisers had brought on Vivrant Sharma for Anmolpreet Singh against Lucknow Super Giants, albeit the former didn't get to bowl after coming in at the end of their innings. If Vivrant is left out against Titans - he is yet to bat in this tournament, and has bowled only two overs in two games - then they might swap Anmolpreet with T Natarajan or vice-versa.

SRH probable XII: 1 Anmolpreet Singh, 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Aiden Markram (capt), 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Vivrant Sharma, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Marco Jansen, 11 Mayank Markande, 12 T Natarajan

Stats that matter

David Miller has now batted ten times this IPL, but is yet to hit a half-century. The last time he had batted for at least eight innings but did not get a fifty was in 2016.

For a minimum of 1000 runs scored this season, Sunrisers' Nos. 3-7 batters have the lowest strike rate (134.45), have hit the least number of fifties (three) and have struck the least sixes (49) among all sides this IPL.

Only two batters have ever scored at most 80 runs in a T20 innings, and yet strike ten sixes. Rashid Khan did just that in a losing cause against Mumbai Indians. And while he is also the leading wicket-taker with 23 wickets so far, he remains the only one this season to have got both right- and left-hand batters at least 11 times each.

"We should be sitting down pretty high on this table," claimed Brian Lara, head coach of the Sunrisers Hyderabad. "We've had some close games and games that entering the final strides of the game, we were ahead. And we did not close it off."

The Sunrisers have seen better days, even in this IPL. Nevertheless, as it stands, after the clash between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, they sit next to last - a position that is certainly not to change after the second game of Sunday's double-header involving another lowly side KKR. Such is the predicament of the Sunrisers. However, Lara isn't wrong. Three home games, in which the Sunrisers dominated for a large part, they managed to squander at the business end -- against Mumbai by 14 runs, Delhi by 7 runs, Kolkata by 5 runs and the latest against LSG two nights ago, by 7 wickets. Four wins would've catapulted them to the very top of the table.

Sunrisers have had their issues -- an underperforming Harry Brook, barring his hundred, an unstable batting order that keeps changing, and a bowling attack that has blown hot and cold this season. However, the Sunrisers cling on. They live to fight another day. And even at the fag-end of the tournament, they are in contention for the playoffs, despite just four wins, the most recent of them, a stunning chase of 215 by Abdul Samad to bring them back from the dead. The Sunrisers have the players, and to an extent, the momentum. What they don't have is consistency. And there's no better time to peak, than the business end. However, only merit won't do now.

The Gujarat Titans are in zen mode. After a shocker against KKR early in the tournament, in which they dominated for 39 overs before a freak innings (by no means accidental), their losses have come by 5 runs against Delhi, three wickets (last over run-chase) against Rajasthan, and perhaps the only game in which they didn't get close, against the Mumbai Indians, by 27 runs. They have a settled team, with players putting their hand up when no one else does, most evident in the game against Mumbai, where the top order was dismantled before an explosive 79* by Rashid Khan kept them in the game until the 18th over. Given their performance over the course of the tournament, this no-show from the top order can be termed an aberration.

With no obvious weaknesses in their game, negligible injury casualties, and more than one ace up their sleeve, the Gujarat Titans look like a unit that can punch above their weight, and have done so consistently over the course of the tournament. They're 2023's defending champions, a notch above the rest and all but have a Q against their name.

What to expect: Scores at the Narendra Modi stadium have ranged between 125 and 227 (both made by the home side) this year, so the softness of the wicket and the surface used will dictate what is a competitive total at this venue. However, higher totals have been the norm, with multiple 200+ scores and a majority of scores in excess of 170. It will be uncomfortably stuffy in Ahmedabad, with a predicted high of 43 degrees Celsius even at 7PM.

Head to Head: The Gujarat Titans and the Sunrisers Hyderabad have a 1-1 head to head record, both in the 2022 IPL, where Kane Williamson starred with the bat - for SRH to defeat the Titans. This is the first and only time the two sides will face each other in this year's IPL.

Teams watch:

Gujarat Titans:

Injury/Availability: The Gujarat Titans are a settled unit and are likely to go with the same XI, given that there haven't been any injury concerns. Tactical changes are unlikely, other than the impact substitute, which is almost definitely Alzarri Joseph replacing one of the batting eleven when they have a bowl.

Tactics and match-ups: Mohammed Shami has troubled Rahul Tripathi in this tournament in the past. SRH's aggressive top-order batter has fallen thrice to the experienced fast bowler in just the 29 balls he has faced, while only scoring 34 runs.

Probable XI: Wriddhiman Saha(w), Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya(c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Abhinav Manohar, Mohit Sharma, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad

Alzarri Joseph could either be picked in the XI or be substituted in based on what happens at the toss.

Sunrisers Hyderabad:

Injury/Availability: None reported

Tactics & Match-ups: For SRH to gain early control, they will need Bhuvneshwar Kumar to be at their best against GT's Shubman Gill. The otherwise impressive opener has struggled, scoring just 35 runs in 41 balls he has faced from the veteran. SRH could also unfurl leg spin through Mayank Markande early to clip Wriddhiman Saha's wings before he tees off in the PowerPlay. The keeper-batter has struggled against leg spin and has a strike-rate of just 100 against them.

Probable XI: Abhishek Sharma, Anmolpreet Singh, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen(w), Glenn Phillips, Abdul Samad, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Did you know?

- Shubman Gill averages 75.14 in 10 innings in Ahmedabad, with 526 runs, 3 fifties, a hundred, and a highest of 126*, and a stunning strike-rate of 152.46.

- Miller averages 85 against Bhuvneshwar in all T20s, at a strike-rate of 184.78 with only one dismissal.