Indian T20 League 2023

BLR vs GUJ, 70th Match

Preview

Bangalore and Gujarat will cross swords for the 70th match of the ongoing Indian T20 League. The match is scheduled at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday, May 21. 

The defending champions have once again proved their strength being in the first position with 9 wins in 13 games and have already qualified for the Playoffs. Gujarat will play this game just as a mere formality whereas the fourth place occupier Bangalore will eye for keeping their doors open for the qualifiers. 

Faf’s Bangalore will come into this encounter after a flabbergasting win against Hyderabad. Markram and Co batted first scoring 186 runs at a loss of 5 wickets. It was Enrich Klassen who saved their side from low scoring total by smashing 104 runs off just 51 deliveries. Michael Bracewell took two wickets, along with Mohammed Siraj, Shahbaz Ahmed and Hashal Patel who also took a wicket apiece but somehow failed to stop the Klassen’s rampage.

While retaliating the two Bangalore openers’ Faf Du Plessis and Virat Kohli dominated Dharamshala as if it was some sort of a gully cricket tournament. While the captain Du Plessis scored 71 runs off 47 balls, Kohli went on to smash a century in just 63 deliveries. It took BLR 19.2 overs to achieve the target with eight wickets to spare. Only Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan picked up a wicket each but that too at the cost of losing. 

The defending champions on the other hand also defeated Markram’s XI in their previous encounter. Flamboyant opener Shubman Gill slammed a century (101 off 58) giving their side a good headstart and Sai Sudharsan also scored 47 runs. The rest of the squad failed to score in two digits with four of them getting out on golden duck and one batter on duck. Indian seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked a fifer and Marco Jansen, Fazalhaq Farooqi and T Natarajan got one wicket apiece but till that time Gujarat managed to put up 188 runs on the scorecard with one wicket to spare. 

Hyderabad was restricted to 154 runs during the second innings of the game. Barring Heinrich Klaasen’s inning of 64 runs off just 44 deliveries, no other batter played some impressive knocks in the favourite of the Orange Army. This resulted in their defeat by 34 runs. Mohammad Shami and Mohit Sharma (four wickets each) were the chief architects of Gujarat’s victory. Yash Dayal also contributed with his low economy rate and a wicket which surely boosted his confidence after getting thrashed five consecutive sixes against Rinku Singh in the match against Kolkata.  

Match Details

Match: BLR vs GUJ, 70th Match, IND T20 League 2023

Date: Sunday, May 21, 2023

Time: 07:30 PM

Venue: M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

Pitch and Weather Report

The ground at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium is favoured by the batters; being batter-friendly, the game is predicted to be a high-scoring encounter. Nevertheless, spinners will have a fair chance in this game.  

The weather during the match time will be mostly sunny with a maximum temperature of 32 degrees Celsius.

BLR vs GUJ Squads

BLR: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Mohammed Siraj, Anuj Rawat, David Willey, Akash Deep, Karn Sharma, Suyash Prabhudessai, Manoj Bhandage, Michael Bracewell, Finn Allen, Siddarth Kaul, Sonu Yadav, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Himanshu Sharma

GUJ: Hardik Pandya (Captain), Abhinav Manohar, David Miller, Shubman Gill, Matthew Wade, Wriddhiman Saha, Sai Sudharsan, Darshan Nalkande, Jayant Yadav, Pradeep Sangwan, Rahul Tewatia, Shivam Mavi, Vijay Shankar, Alzarri Joseph, Mohammad Shami, Noor Ahmad, Sai Kishore, Rashid Khan, Yash Dayal, Kane Williamson, Joshua Little, Odean Smith, Urvil Patel, K.S Bharat, Mohit Sharma

BLR vs GUJ Probable Playing XIs

BLR: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (C), Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Suyash Prabhudessai, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Wanindu Hasaranga, Karn Sharma, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood

GUJ: Wriddihman Saha, Shubman Gill, Vijay Shankar, Hardik Pandya, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed, Joshua Little, Mohammed Shami

Match Prediction

Bangalore enters this competition with a win, but the side would be bothered about the poor form of the bowlers. They will be up against a powerful batting side, and their bowlers have to get on the top to win this match. The Gujarat franchise has everything needed to form a prime squad. Also, they won't feel the pressure as they have already qualified for the playoff round. They also have a strong bowling department led by Rashid Khan. Hence we expect Gujarat to win this match. 

Top Fantasy Picks

Skipper Faf du Plessis is the highest run-getter for the Bangalore franchise with 702 runs scored at a strike rate of 153. He has hit 36 sixes and 55 fours so far in this tournament. 

Virat Kohli, the centurion in the last match guided BLR to win a crucial match against HYD which kept their playoffs dream alive. He has a total of 538 runs scored at a strike rate of 135 in this ongoing Indian T20 League 2023.

Shubman Gill is the leading run-scorer for Gujarat this season. He registered 576 runs, hitting 14 sixes and 62 fours at a strike rate of 146. 

The spin wizard Rashid Khan has been the leader of the pack for Gujarat and has taken 23 wickets while bowling at an economy rate of 7.96 and an average of 18. 

Risky Captaincy Choice

Mohammed Siraj has proved his importance for the Bangalore franchise and is current;y the highest wicket taken in the guild. He has 17 wickets under his belt while bowling at an average of 20 and an economy rate of 7.46. Hence we can keep our stakes on Siraj to give a fruitful result in this do-or-die match.

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