🏏IPL 2023: Match 13 - Gujarat Titans vs Kolkata Knight Riders 🏏

“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning/ watching.” 

🏏IPL 2023: Match 13 - Gujarat Titans vs Kolkata Knight Riders 9/4/23🏏

Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad 

Tag and Logo credit: Sevenstreaks

Welcome to the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, the 13th match of the Indian Premier League 2023 will feature Gujarat Titans (GT) vs Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). 

The Titans are now ranked second in the points table after winning both of their games so far. 

Kolkata Knight Riders, on the contrary, did not have a great start to their IPL 2023 campaign, as they lost to the Punjab Kings. 

However, Nitish Rana & Co. displayed great character in their following game and trumped Royal Challengers Bangalore by 81 runs. 

They would look to play in the same vein and continue the momentum to conquer the defending champions.

The home advantage apart, Gujarat Titans have the players to achieve the goals, and it has been all too visible in the first two games of the season.

If their opening match against Chennai Super Kings gave an insight into young Shubman Gill’s form with the bat — he scored a 36-ball 63 in the thrilling five-wicket victory –, the tie against Delhi Capitals threw up an unlikely hero in Sai Sudarshan, who clobbered a 48-ball 62 to make a mockery of the rival team’s total.

With the prodigious Sai Sudarshan seamlessly filling in the Kane Williamson void, the champions look as formidable as ever as they look to make another deep run in this tournament.

On the other hand, the Knight Riders have been in troubleshooting mode, exacerbated by the season-ending injury to regular captain Shreyas Iyer and the withdrawal of Shakib Al Hasan. 

But amid the chaos came a backs-to-the-wall performance against the Royal Challengers Bangalore two nights ago, one in which Shardul Thakur engineered a comeback with a blistering half-century before passing on the baton to Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy to get the team on the board.

In all respects, it will be an interesting competition between these two teams. 

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PS: Don't forget to send your predictions for Match 13

Deadline for toss prediction: 3:00PM IST

Deadline for rest of the predictions: 3:30PM IST

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

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GT Predicted Playing XI

Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Sai Sudarshan, Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Shami, Joshua Little, Yash Dayal 

KKR Predicted Playing XI

Venkatesh Iyer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Mandeep Singh/N Jagadeesan, Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy 

Pitch Report 

In Ahmedabad, this will be the second game of the year. In the last five T20 games played here, the first innings scoring has averaged 173 runs. The pitch in this situation is probably going to provide the batters with a lot of help.

Narendra Modi Stadium has offered a batting-friendly surface and has remained the same throughout the 40 overs quote of the match. However, teams have preferred to hunt down the total. In the last three IPL games played at the venue, the chasing side has stood victorious on all occasions. Hence, the team to win the toss in the forthcoming game should look to bowl.

Weather Report

Temperatures between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius are predicted for the Gujarat Titans vs Kolkata Knight Riders encounter on Sunday due to the bright, sunny weather. The temperatures are probably going to drop a little bit as the game goes into the evening, giving both players and spectators some reprieve.

Players to watch --

This IPL season, Rashid Khan has performed effectively, taking five wickets in two games. For the Titans this year, he has taken the most wickets. Rashid has five wickets, with an average of 11.4 and strike rates of 9.6 and 7.12, respectively.

For the Gujarat Titans, Rashid has also demonstrated his brilliance with the bat.

Shardul Thakur 

In the IPL, Shardul Thakur is in excellent form. Thakur steps forward and contributes as a rescuer whenever the squad needs someone to blast for them.

In the previous game, he picked up one wicket and scored 68 runs off 29 deliveries. For this effort, he was given the Player of the Match award. His first IPL half-century and second POTM award came with this performance. 

Probable best batter

Shubman Gill:

Shubman Gill has tormented bowlers with his marauding bat and piled on fun for Gujarat Titans. He displayed his class in the encounter against Chennai Super Kings and notched up a blistering half-century. The ace batter would look to put up a show with the bat against KKR.

Probable best bowler

Rashid Khan:

Rashid Khan has wreaked havoc in the ongoing edition of the cash-rich league. He has featured in two games and bagged five wickets at an economy of 7.12. The spin-bowling maestro would be itching to weave his magic in the clash on Sunday.

Thanks for the tag Madhu.🤗

May the best team win.👍🏼

Cheers..

Disclaimer: The prediction is based on the understanding, analysis, and instinct of the author. While making your prediction, consider the points mentioned, and make your own decision.

big score expected...

KKr i dont trust....

May the best team wins the match

The dhaaga I was waiting for 😆

GT, don't disappoint me 😡

Varun Chakravarthy is among the few bowlers in the KKR setup to have managed to keep Hardik Pandya quiet (21 runs off 21 balls) in the IPL and given his good start to the season, is a likely match-up option when the Titans skipper walks out to bat.

Hardik Pandya has scored 366 runs at an average of 61 and SR of 173.46 against KKR. This includes his highest score (91) in the IPL

- Sunil Narine (155) and Rashid Khan (117) are the two most successful overseas spinners in IPL and the only ones with 100+ wickets.

What they said:

"KKR are a strong team with some really good mystery bowlers. And we're well aware of what they've got and in terms of preparation we've been doing everything we can in the last day or two to counter that," - David Miller knows what challenges the opponents bring.