SRH and GT skippers pose together before their first match against each other. (File photo)
Lockie Ferguson's 150-click thunderbolts will the rising pace sensation Umran Malik's toe-crushers as Gujarat Titans clash with Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL on Wednesday.
Gujarat is currently at the top of the points board by winning six out of seven matches. Interestingly, the only time that Titans lost so far was against Sunrisers in an earlier meeting.
However, the 'Orange Army's bowling attack especially their four-prong fast bowling unit has been exceptional as one saw when they demolished RCB for 68 in their previous encounter.
The disconcerting bounce and movement created by Marco Jansen (6 wickets from 5 games) are ably complemented by Umran's (10 wickets from 7 games) fiery pace, T Natarajan's (15 from 7 games) deceptions off the track, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (9 from 7 games) balancing it all with his experience.
So much so that a lightweight spin department manned by left-arm spinner Jagadeesha Suchith in absence of an injured Washington Sundar, till now hasn't been a cause of worry for Kane Williamson and his band of men.
In fact, the rub of the green has gone SRH's way in this particular season as they now have five consecutive wins from five games where they have chased targets after the bowlers intimidated the rival batting unit.
For Pandya though, his bowling unit is no inferior to SRH as Mohammed Shami's artistry (10 from 7 games) and Ferguson's (9 wickets from 7 games) aggression has brought them a lot of success, not to forget Rashid Khan's (8 wickets from 7 games) ability to be more than decent even in a quiet year by his standards.
However, one area where the Titans need to lift their game is Powerplay batting as Shubman Gill (207 from 7 games) has gone off the boil after his 96 and Wriddhiman Saha, replacing Matthew Wade, has been downright mediocre.
In fact, Saha's propensity to waste balls upfront (dismal SR of 83 in 2 games) in both the matches that he played so far has forced skipper Pandya (295 from 6 games) and David Miller (220 from 7 games) to up the ante even before they can take some time to play themselves in.
For skipper Pandya, it will be important that he isn't plagued by a dodgy hamstring which led to his absence from one game and also created some degree of discomfort against KKR the other day.
Abhinav Manohar and Rahul Tewatia would also like to be more consistent in the finishers' role rather than being like a flash in the pan for a match or two.
However, the Titans' bowling attack has the ability to catch the SRH batting unit off-guard considering that it hasn't been tested a lot with young Abhishek Sharma (220 in 7 games) and No.3 batter Rahul Tripathi (212 from 7 games) doing bulk of the scoring in easy chases.
If Titans could breach through the Sunriser's top-order, most of the middle-order batters including the dangerous Nicholas Pooran haven't yet got a decent hit in the middle and the rustiness under pressure could keep Titans interested.
If they manage to upset SRH's rhythm, it will take them closer to play-offs in their maiden year in the championship, no mean achievement in a competition of this class.
Teams:
Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (c), Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Gurkeerat Singh, B Sai Sudarshan, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Matthew Wade, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Wriddhiman Saha, Alzarri Joseph, Darshan Nalkande, Dominic Drakes, Jayant Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, Pradeep Sangwan, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Varun Aaron, Yash Dayal.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Priyam Garg, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Romario Shepherd, Marco Jansen, J Suchith, Shreyas Gopal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sean Abbott, Kartik Tyagi, Saurabh Tiwary, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Umran Malik, T Natarajan.
The match starts at 7.30 pm.
(Inputs from PTI)
