IPL Final: Clash with Titans, defending champion RCB will take the field to win the second consecutive trophy
Ahmedabad. When the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team takes the field on Sunday to fulfill the dream of winning the title for the second consecutive time in the Indian Premier League, it will face a tough challenge from Gujarat Titans, which will see a clash of two different playing styles in this match. RCB has dominated the tournament with its aggressive and fearless style, while the Titans have impressed with their patience and composed play and secured a ticket to the final for the third time in five years.
On paper, defending champions RCB are considered strong contenders against the 2022 winners Titans, as their fearless and risky play has been extremely impressive throughout this tournament. This aggressive strategy has sometimes put the team in trouble, but Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Tim David, captain Rajat Patidar, Phil Salt and Venkatesh Iyer when available have consistently batted aggressively. In the first qualifier, RCB had defeated the Titans in the same fearless style.
Pitch conditions or opposition bowling tactics have had little impact on their aggressive approach, and no other team has scored more than 200 runs as many times as RCB have this season. Captain Rajat Patidar’s calm and balanced leadership style has also given stability to the team in the last two seasons. He is not as emotionally vocal as former captains Virat Kohli or Faf du Plessis, but his decisions exude confidence, which makes both the experienced and young players of the team feel comfortable.
RCB’s bowling unit has also been economical and effective this time, which has put pressure on the opposition batsmen in the powerplay itself. This bowling led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar will have to perform at its best against the in-form top order of Gujarat Titans.
On the other hand, in this tournament, while most of the teams are playing at a pace of 11-12 runs per over in the powerplay, Gujarat Titans’ openers, captain Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan have adopted a relatively restrained pace, which has been a little more than nine runs per over. This is a traditional strategy also because Gujarat’s middle order is relatively weak and most of the team’s batting burden rests on the top three batsmen (Gill, Sudarshan and Jos Buttler). Despite this, all three have consistently performed impressively.
Gill has scored 722 runs (strike rate 163), Sudarshan has scored 710 runs (strike rate 159) and Butler has scored 507 runs (strike rate 157). Now he will once again have to shoulder the responsibility in the same important match. Gujarat’s home record this season (five wins out of seven) definitely gives the team some confidence. This challenge will not be easy, however, as RCB’s bowling is extremely diverse and sharp. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is second in the Purple Cap list with 26 wickets, while Josh Hazlewood (13 wickets), Rasikh Salam (16 wickets) and Krunal Pandya (13 wickets) have combined to form a strong attack. Krunal has also been making useful contributions with the bat.
Gujarat Titans have a slight edge in terms of bowling, but RCB’s batting depth and aggressive batsmen in every order give them a clear edge. However, Gujarat’s bowling has the ability to contain this aggression, especially if the Ahmedabad pitch helps the bowlers.
Kagiso Rabada is currently leading the race for the Purple Cap with 28 wickets. Bowlers like Mohammed Siraj, Rashid Khan, Jason Holder and Prasidh Krishna have together created a strong attack. Rabada and Siraj have together bowled 165 and 162 dot balls this season, which indicates that they have been successful in maintaining control over the batsmen even on flat pitches. Both of them made excellent use of hard length bowling and did not give the big shot batsmen a chance to play freely. Siraj’s fitness will also be monitored.
He suffered some shoulder trouble during Qualifier 2 against Rajasthan Royals in Mullanpur on Friday. He completed his quota of four overs, but looked uncomfortable on the field. Gujarat Titans will hope that this problem does not become serious. On paper, RCB is a strong contender for this match and in the eyes of many people, this final is not going to be lost to them, but is being considered to be a match going in their favor.
RCB is now eyeing to become the team to win two consecutive IPL titles after Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians, which is a completely possible goal for them. Gujarat Titans may have been a composed team, but this time they will not miss any opportunity to stop RCB’s aggression. In such a situation, this final has every possibility of becoming a very exciting match.
Teams:
RCB:
Rajat Patidar (captain), Virat Kohli, Tim David, Jacob Bethel, Romario Shepherd, Josh Hazlewood, Nuwan Thushara, Devdutt Padikkal, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Rasikh Dar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jordan Cox, Suyyash Sharma, Venkatesh Iyer, Swapnil Singh, Jacob Duffy, Kanishk Chauhan, Abhinandan Singh, Mangesh Yadav, Phil Salt, Satvik Deswal, Vicky Ostwal, Vihaan Malhotra.
Gujarat Titans:
Sai Sudarshan, Shubman Gill (captain), Shahrukh Khan, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Kumar Kushagra, Tom Banton, Glenn Phillips, Jason Holder, Nishant Sindhu, Rahul Tewatia, Washington Sundar, Sai Kishore, Jayant Yadav, Arshad Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Manav Suthar, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Brar, Ashok Sharma, Luke Wood, Prithvi Raj Yaara. The match will be played from 07:30 pm.
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