Cricket Indian Premier League Prediction

Gujarat Titans vs Mumbai Indians - Match Preview

🏏 26 April 2023 - 18:00 GMT +0

Two teams with contrasting recent form in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) will go head to head on Wednesday evening in Bengaluru when Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) host Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). RCB have won three of their last four games and are now four points above the dwindling KKR side, who have lost each of their last four matches. Successive wins for RCB saw them move within two points of the summit of the table and their latest victory, against Rajasthan Royals on Sunday, came in spite of a golden duck for Virat Kohli at the top of the order!

There were half-centuries for Faf du Plessis (62 runs from 39 balls) and Glenn Maxwell (77 runs from 44 balls) against Rajasthan with du Plessis again batting before being substituted out from the game due to his rib injury. The South African was the first player to go past 400 runs in the 2023 IPL, having done so before any other player even reached 300, and he has achieved this with a strike rate of 165.31, higher than his previous IPL best of 140.75 in 2020. du Plessis, Kohli and Maxwell are all amongst the top eight run-scorers of the tournament and one member of the trio has been RCB’s highest run-scorer in each of their seven fixtures.

It’s not just with the bat where RCB boast some top performers as, at the time of writing, Mohammed Siraj was in possession of the Purple Cap (worn by the leading wicket-taker) with 13 dismissals at a strike rate of 12.92. Seven games into the tournament, the right-arm pacer is still yet to go wicketless!

Although he began the tournament without an IPL contract, Jason Roy has top-scored for KKR in each of his innings since getting his first appearance two games ago. He hit 61 runs from 26 balls against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Sunday, an inning which included three sixes from his second, third and fourth balls. Across the competition, Venkatesh Iyer (254 runs at 36.29) and Rinku Singh (233 runs at 58.25) are the leading run scorers for KKR. Iyer has the highest individual score of any player in the 2023 IPL (104 vs Mumbai Indians), but he has contributed only 20 runs in two innings since that century.

This game will be Varun Chakravarthy’s 50th IPL match and he comes into the fixture as KKR’s leading wicket-taker in this campaign. He has gone wicketless in only one of his six appearances this year and 60% of his dismissals have been ‘bowled’. Chakravarthy has ten wickets, including 4-15 against RCB 20 days ago, with Suyash Sharma (seven) and Sunil Narine (six) the other KKR bowlers to have several. But as a collective attack, KKR has performed poorly. They have the worst bowling run-rate (9.62rpo) of all ten sides and no team has taken fewer than their average of 5.43 wickets per game.

With defeats by 49 runs, four wickets, five wickets and 23 runs in their last four fixtures, another loss in this game would mean that KKR has equalled Delhi Capitals' record for this season of five consecutive defeats. In the other corner, RCB will be out for revenge in this clash after they were thrashed by KKR in match 9 earlier this month. The winning margin of 81 runs at Eden Gardens is the highest of any side when batting first in this year’s tournament.

The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium has hosted five matches so far in the 2023 IPL and each of the last three has been won by the team batting first. The weather forecast is for partly cloudy conditions with the temperature in the mid-high 20s and humidity levels over 50% from start to finish.

⚡ Players to watch: Faf du Plessis has a top score of 87 or above in each of the last five IPL tournaments. He has batted eight times at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in the IPL, hit five half-centuries, with four coming from his last five innings, and averaged 78.00 at a strike rate of 154.15.

Although his side has struggled, it has been a strong campaign for Rinku Singh. So far, only Glenn Maxwell (25) and Faf du Plessis (23) have hit more sixes than his 17 and he is in a group of only five players to have hit 200+ runs with a strike rate of 157+. He hit 46 runs from 33 balls in the reverse fixture two and a half weeks ago.

📋 Stat attack: KKR lead the head-to-head 18-14 (including Champions League T20) and have won three of their last four meetings with RCB.

• Jason Roy hit over 38% of balls faced to the boundary against CSK in Match 33.
• Faf du Plessis has hit 62 in each of his last two innings at this venue.
• Varun Chakravarthy vs Glenn Maxwell in the IPL: 2/31 from 21 balls.
• Virat Kohli averages 54 at a rate of 10.45rpo against the bowling of Umesh Yadav in T20s (162/3).
• KKR have won eight of 13 games at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium including their last four against RCB. The hosts last beat KKR at this venue in May, 2015.
• Eight of Harshal Patel’s ten wickets this season have come at this venue.