Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Gujarat Titans vs Mumbai Indians - Match Preview

🏏 25 April 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

After a stunning win over Lucknow Super Giants that almost left opposition captain KL Rahul lost for words at the post-match presentation (“I don’t know how it happened”), reigning Indian Premier League (IPL) champions Gujarat Titans (W4, L2) rejoined the top half logjam that had five of the ten franchises level on eight points at the end of the weekend. They enjoyed a few days off along with the resurging Mumbai Indians (W3, L3), who were gallant in defeat to the Punjab Kings in their attempt to also secure what would have been their fourth victory.

The Titans return back to Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad where they have already lost twice from three games this year (to Kolkata and Rajasthan), batting first on all three occasions. Winning the coin toss could be of great benefit at a venue where seven of the last eight IPL games were won by the chasing side, though the Titans should be immensely confident after defending a total against another team fancied to be at the business end of the playoffs.

Mumbai won the only meeting between these sides last year, batting first and scoring 177 thanks to quickfire 40s from Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Tim David. Most notable was the 40 runs each they plundered from the bowling of Mohammed Shami and Alzarri Joseph, both of whom have occasionally had expensive spells this season. That was just one of two victories when batting first from their last eight matches, something they can draw upon for confidence if asked to set a total here.

One key area of improvement they need to focus on is their bowling run rate (9.45rpo), which was the second worst in the tournament heading into this game, with Piyush Chawla their only regular bowler to be conceding fewer than nine runs per over in 2023. Jason Behrendorff’s seven-season wickets have come at a cost of a double-digit economy rate, whilst Arjun Tendulkar has had a bit of a rough introduction to the IPL. After a sluggish start to the season that had them appearing like prospective wooden spooners, Mumbai has bounced back with consecutive away wins in Delhi and in Hyderabad where the batters have done the heavy lifting, posting scores of 173 and 192 respectively.

⚡ Key battle: After his fourth IPL duck since the start of 2021, Shubman Gill returns home hoping it was just an aberration. It should be, for Gill was one of ten batters (and the only one from his team) to have cleared 35 runs four times this season at the end of the weekend. Furthermore, he has reached 35 in five of his six digs at Narendra Modi Stadium.

Mumbai quick Jofra Archer is in search of improvement after returning with hefty figures of 1/42. Archer has dismissed Gill twice from just 13 balls bowled for career numbers of 2/9!

📋 Stat attack: Gujarat conceded the most sixes of the match in all but one of their games this season.

• Just two of the 12 first-innings IPL scores of under 170 runs in Ahmedabad were successfully defended.
• The Titans struck the highest opening partnership and the most powerplay runs in all three of their home games this season.
• Rashid Khan has career figures of 3/23 against Rohit Sharma in IPL cricket.
• On the contrary, Rashid has never dismissed Tim David or Ishan Kishan in T20 cricket for combined figures of 0/128.
• Wriddhiman Saha comes into this game with a top score of just 25 from six IPL innings in Ahmedabad (average: 14.20).
• Tilak Varma has been dismissed for fewer than 20 runs in just one of his six innings this season.