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Gujarat Titans v Punjab Kings IPL team news
Gujarat Titans are hoping the loss of Mohammad Shami doesn’t kill their play-off chances. Instead they will look to Kagiso Rabada and Gerald Coetzee, for inspiration in terms of overseas players and Mohammad Siraj domestically.
The issue is that Coetzee is coming back from injury (he may not be ready for game one) while Siraj never really did the business for RCB. Washington Sundar as the fulcrum doesn’t inspire much confidence for punters.
Shubman Gill, Jos Buttler and Sai Sudarhsan are a strong front three with the bat but apart from that there’s little to get excited about. The pulse will race a bit more if they find room for Glenn Phillips.
Possible GT XI: Gill, Buttler, Sai, Rutherford/Phillips, Tewatia, Shahrukh, Sundar, Rashid K, Rabada, Siraj, Krishna
Punjab Kings did some good work in the auction. KKR winning captain Shreyas Iyer, Yuz Chahal, Marcus Stoinis and Nehal Wadhera are standout captures. Glenn Maxwell could also be a masterstroke but he has the ability to have absolute shockers in IPL.
This is a franchise with a heavy Aussie flavour. Ricky Ponting coaches. His tough love might just be what a previously soft team has needed. They could be pricey with the ball and using Lockie Fegruson instead of Marco Jansen might be shrewd.
Possible Punjab Kings XI: Prab, Inglis, Shreyas, Maxwell, Shashank, Wadhera, Stoinis, Jansen/Ferguson, Arshdeep, Chahal, Yash Thakur
Gujarat Titans v Punjab Kings IPL pitch report
There is a 66% bias for the chaser in IPL night matches at Ahmedabad. That’s pretty chunky from a 26-game study sample. With the same filter, the RPO batting first is 8.4 compared to 8.6. That’s not a huge gap. New rules allowing the side bowling first a ball change after 11 overs is meant to counter dew so we need to be aware that could have an impact.
An early 20-over line has overs at 184.5. That has won six times in the last two years (13 matches). It can be a tricky pitch to call with extremes possible. See five scores of 200 or more and a 130, 89 and 159 (by SRH of all teams).
Gujarat Titans v Punjab Kings IPL match prediction
Gujarat Titans are 1.845/6 favourites with Punjab Kings 2.166/5. Punjab are a fancy to break into the top four this season so it would stand to reason that they are considered value for the points against one of the weaker outfits.
Man for man Punjab are as good as some of the best in this league now. What needs to change is guts and gumption. With three Australia players and Ponting, they need to become hard to beat and show a never-say-die attitude.
We will be them here at odds-against but the toss bias would need to be on our side. We don’t expect the match odds to move against our bet post-toss.
For those who prefer to play in-play, Punjab could well be bigger at the break. As stated, there is a bit of a concern that, Yuz Chahal aside, they could go round the park.
That means that batting second a much bigger price is available. They could be greater than 4.003/1 for example if this was to prove one of the Ahemdabad surfaces that suits the batters.
As a guide, Sportsbook go 4/15.00 that both teams score 190 and the chaser wins. That’s a wager that catches the eye given the respective strengths of the teams and the chase bias.
Delhi Capitals v Lucknow Super Giants player bets
Top Titans bat is a competitive market. The win rates of Gill (34%), Buttler (20%) and Sudharsan (40%) don’t give the rest a look in. One those numbers Sudharsan is the clear value at the biggest price of the three at 10/34.33. For Punjab there is a clear bet as well. That’s Stoinis at 6/17.00 with a two-year win rate at 27%. One would hope Ponting’s influence means he gets him to the crease as early as possible.
Back Sai Sudharsan top GT bat
Back Marcus Stoinis top Punjab bat
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