Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Gujarat Titans vs Sunrisers Hyderabad - Match Preview

🏏 15 May 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

“Fear the team with nothing to lose” is a saying that could be applied to Gujarat Titans’ home fixture against the already vanquished Sunrisers Hyderabad, the latter of whom will be missing the playoffs for a third straight year following Saturday’s loss at home to Lucknow. Gujarat will be wary of their lowly ranked opposition after losing to Delhi Capitals four starts back, but their class saw them head into Sunday’s double-header on top of the table once again.

Gujarat’s credentials as title favourites have been questioned occasionally throughout the season, most recently when they fell victim to the Mumbai Indians' run-scoring machine. It was an uncharacteristically expensive effort from a Titans bowling unit that was still the most incisive and economical of the entire season (8.33rpo and 7.5 wickets per innings) going into Sunday’s games, with only the Afghan spin duo of Noor Ahmad and Rashid Khan going for fewer than 40 runs each.

Back in Ahmedabad, where fast bowlers Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma have combined for 19 wickets this season (compared with 16 for Rashid and Noor), the Titans are understandably expected to bounce back strongly even despite their ordinary 3-3 record in Ahmedabad this season. The last three matches were taken out by the team that batted first on the day, which doesn’t play into the hands of the Titans given that 65% of their wins come in chases.

Sunrisers Hyderabad is averaging 172 this season when batting first, well below the league average of 180, and are now scoring at a rate of just 8.05rpo even after exceeding 180+ runs in three of their last four innings. So whilst the batting has been improving, the bowling has gone the other way. An aggregate of five wickets across their last two innings is all you need to know about the struggles they’re going through.

This is the second of four games in eight days for the men in orange, but they’re already playing for pride with a trip to Mumbai and a home game against RCB still to come. A deflated captain, Aiden Markram, identified these games as little more than an opportunity to gain much-needed experience ahead of next year, and with the distant future now in mind, it would not surprise to see some bench players getting a long-awaited opportunity - or even the return of Mayank Agarwal and/or Harry Brook.

⚡ Players to watch: Based on his run of 20 straight IPL games without back-to-back single-digit scores, Shubman Gill is expected to return to the runs here - especially at home where he has five scores of 39+ from six innings (63, 39, 45, 56, 6, 94*).

Abhishek Sharma has spent his nine IPL games in 2023 alternating between single-digit failures and scores of 30+, so he’s due for something big after scoring just 7 in his last appearance. He posted 65 and 42 in his two knocks against Gujarat last season.

📋 Stat attack: Hyderabad has struck the most sixes of just three matches this season.

• The average first innings score in Ahmedabad this season is 187.
• Hyderabad’s four wins this season have all been as pre-match underdogs (W4, L3).
• Rashid Khan has returned Gujarat’s best bowling figures (wickets followed by economy rate) five times this season.
• David Miller has scored 85 runs from 46 balls bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in all T20s with just one dismissal.
• Mohammed Shami has taken Rahul Tripathi’s wicket three times at an average of just 11.33 (3/34 from 29 balls).