Indian T20 League 2023

GUJ vs RAJ, 23rd Match

Preview

The 23rd match of the Indian T20 League 2023 will be played between GUJ and RAJ on Sunday, April 16. The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad will host the match. 

Gujarat are placed in third place with three wins in 4 matches with an NRR of +0.341. On the other hand, Rajasthan are ruling the points table with the same number of wins as Gujarat but has a greater net run rate of +1.588. 

Gujarat lost one of their four games that too in an unfortunate way. In the last over where Kolkata needed 29 runs, Yash Dayal was the bowler who was thrashed for 5 sixes in the last five balls by Rinku Singh.

In the fourth match, they came back well and defeated Punjab by 6 wickets. In that match, Punjab batted first posting 153 runs and losing eight wickets. Matthew Short scored 36 runs off 24 deliveries, the highest from their side. Joshua Little, Mohammad Shami, Alzarri Joseph, and Rashid Khan took a wicket apiece and debutant Mohit Sharma went on to pick two wickets against the Punjab side. In the second innings of the game, the man in sublime form, Shubman Gill drafted 67 runs in 49 balls to power the innings for the defending champions. The match ended in a last-over drama where GUJ needed 7 runs. In the second ball of the last over, Gill was sent back by Sam Curran. The loud roar from the Punjab crowd was silenced within minutes as Tewatia goes down on his knee and scoops the ball over the short fine leg to finish the game off in style. The Hardik Pandya-led side would be flying high on confidence and would target the top spot by defeating Rajasthan in this match by a good run margin. 

The league toppers lost their second match against Punjab by just 5 runs. The duo of Punjab openers posted 146 runs as the first wicket partnership. Prabhsimran Singh, the young talent scored 60 runs off that and skipper Dhawan led from the front as he remained unbeaten at a score of 86. The Sanju Samson-led side, had a poor start as their top three batters went off during the powerplay. The captain scored 42 off 25 deliveries which was the highest score from the deserters. This is because all lower middle orders batters contributed in greater forms but failed to reach the target at the end. Riyan Parag (20 off 12), Shimron Hetmyer (36 off 18), and Dhruv Jurel (32* off 15) played three impressive knocks but all went down in vain as they failed to get 16 runs off the last over. 

The Sanju Samson-led side made a strong comeback after their first loss. They defeated Delhi by a massive margin of 57 runs in their third encounter and went on to defeat the four-time title winners Chennai by 3 runs. Defeating the Dhoni-led side was a big achievement for the side as at a certain point it was looking that the Dhoni-Jadeja duo will finish the game. Rajasthan posted 175 runs with Jos Buttler scoring 52 off 36 balls. The Yellow army sent in their star openers, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Devon Conway. Although Gaikwad was sent off earlier in Sandeep Sharma’s over, Conway went on to play an outstanding inning of 50 runs. The last two overs were no less than an action-packed movie, where everyone held back their seats in awe of witnessing another vintage Dhoni finish. Although their dream almost turned into reality, as after two wides and a dot off Sandeep Sharma in the final over, his second and third deliveries were hit for two monumental sixes by MS Dhoni. Sandeep held his nerves in the last three remaining balls and bowled three accurate yorkers which restricted any further boundary resulting in Chennai losing the game by just three runs. 

Match Details

Match: GUJ vs RAJ, 23rd Match, IND T20 League 2023

Date: Sunday, April 16, 2023

Time: 07:30 PM

Venue: Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad

Pitch and Weather Report

The surface at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is excellent to bat on and we can expect a high-scoring match between the sides. The team batting first will be peeking on getting close to 200 runs on the scoreboard to put the opponent under pressure in the second innings of the match. The pitch does have some grass on it which will help the fast bowlers in the powerplays. 

The weather is predicted to remain clear with the highest and lowest temperatures between 26-41 degrees Celsius. 

GUJ vs RAJ Squads

GUJ: Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Joshua Little, Vijay Shankar, Shivam Mavi, Jayant Yadav, Abhinav Manohar, Srikar Bharat, Yash Dayal, Matthew Wade, Pradeep Sangwan, Dasun Shanaka, Odean Smith, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Darshan Nalkande, Urvil Patel, Noor Ahmad

RAJ: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jason Holder, Kuldeep Sen, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal, Adam Zampa, Riyan Parag, Donavon Ferreira, KM Asif, Joe Root, Murugan Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Akash Vasisht, KC Cariappa, Obed McCoy, Kuldip Yadav, Abdul Basith, Kunal Singh Rathore, Trent Boult 

GUJ vs RAJ Probable Playing XIs

GUJ: Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan, Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Joshua Little

RAJ: Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Devdutt Padikkal, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, R Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Obed McCoy, Yuzvendra Chahal

Match Prediction

Gujarat side led by Hardik Pandya is seeing as confident as they were in the 2022 season of the Indian T20 League when they became the champions. Both GUJ and RAJ have won three out of their four games, but the Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan side has a greater run rate due to which they are on the top of the points table. Though GUJ is in the third spot due to an unfortunate loss against KOL, they are a confident side and believe in teamwork. Also with players like Gill, Sudharsan Rashid and Shami being in sublime touch with the bat and the ball respectively, the home side is expected to outclass Rajasthan on Sunday, April 15. 

Top Fantasy Picks

Shubman Gill is now turning out to be the ace factor for Gujarat. Last season in the Indian T20 League, he scored 483 runs in 16 innings at an average of 34.50. Also, in this year’s campaign, he is in full throttle with scores of 63, 14, 39 and 67 runs so far in four matches. In his last two encounters with Rajasthan in 2022, he smashed 35 and 45* runs respectively. 

Rashid Khan has been clinical with the ball in this season of the Indian T20 League. He has picked up 9 wickets so far and is the second-highest wicket-taker of this season. He took a fiery hattrick in the game against Kolkata, although Rinku Singh’s heroics in the last over snatched away the game from them.

Jos Buttler was the top run-getter for the side in the last season of the Indian T20 League. He drafted 836 runs in 17 innings playing at an average of 57.53. The previous season against the defending champions, he played knocks of 89 and 39 runs in the two meetings. His current form is also incredible as he has scored 54, 19, 79 and 52 respectively in the four games he played this season.

Yuzvendra Chahal is the current purple cap holder in this season of the Indian T20 League with 10 wickets under his belt. He ripped apart Hyderabad’s batting lineup in the inaugural game of the season, picking up a four-fer, helping his side to secure their first win of the season by a huge margin of 72 runs. 

Risky Captaincy Choice

Devdutt Padikkal will be our risky captaincy choice. Yes, we know he hasn’t been in good form of late and has a low string of scores in the tournament thus far. Having said that, he did look good in his last outing against Chennai in which he scored 38. He got the start but failed to convert into something considerable but looked solid during his 26-ball stay at the crease. Expect the dashing Southpaw to get back his lost confidence in this game.   

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