IPL 2023, GT v RCB | RCB eyes Kohli and Duplesey in crucial match against Gujarat Titans

Bengaluru: Desperate for a place in the playoffs, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) team knows that it needs to win the final league match of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2023) against Gujarat Titans (GT) to be held here on Sunday. what needs to be done. Virat Kohli is back in his best form while skipper Faf Du Plessis continues to lead the way with over 600 runs so far. RCB will be hoping for a good start again from both their openers in this do or die match. RCB’s team is ranked fourth ahead of Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals due to better net run rate. All these three teams have the same 14 points. Mumbai has to face Sunrisers Hyderabad in another match and they too have a chance to reach 16 points like RCB. RCB will get the advantage of playing at their home ground and at the same time they will also know the result of the match between Mumbai and Sunrisers in the afternoon. But if they lose to the top-ranked Gujarat Titans, then their chances of playing in the playoffs are almost over. Also read Gujarat under the leadership of Hardik Pandya has performed brilliantly so far and his team remains ahead in the race to win the title for the second year in a row. With 18 points from 13 matches, the Gujarat team has secured its first place in the league stage. Both RCB and Gujarat Titans will go into this match after registering big wins. While Gujarat beat Sunrisers by 34 runs, RCB registered an eight-wicket win over Sunrisers. Kohli scored a century in this match, which was his sixth century overall in IPL. Kohli and his opening partner Du Plessis performed brilliantly in that match and the team will look to take inspiration from them. But the match against Gujarat will not be easy, whose team is brimming with confidence. It will be interesting to see how Kohli, Du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell fare against this formidable team. The biggest worry for RCB is over-reliance on Kohli, Duplesey and Maxwell. If the Gujarat team is successful in taking wickets in the beginning, then the difficulties of RCB may increase. In bowling, Mohammad Siraj and Wayne Parnell are playing a good role for RCB but they will be facing in-form Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia and skipper Pandya. Gujarat Titans attack is very strong with the presence of experienced Mohammed Shami, Rashid Khan and Mohit Sharma. As far as the weather is concerned, there is a possibility of rain, which cannot be considered good news for RCB. Squad: Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf Duplesey (c), Akash Deep, Finn Allen, Anuj Rawat, Avinash Singh, Manoj Bhandge, Michael Bracewell, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Siddarth Kaul, Virat Kohli, Mahipal Lomror , Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Siraj, Wayne Parnell, Harshal Patel, Suyash Prabhudesai, Rajan Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Karn Sharma, Himanshu Sharma, Sonu Yadav, Vijaykumar Vaishak, Kedar Jadhav. Gujarat Titans: Hardik Pandya (Captain), Shubman Gill, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Sai Sudarshan, Wriddhiman Saha, Matthew Wade, Rashid Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Mohammed Shami, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Pradeep Sangwan, Darshan Nalkande , Jayant Yadav, R. Sai Kishore, Noor Ahmed, Dasun Shanaka, Odion Smith, KS Bharath, Shivam Mavi, Urvil Patel, Joshua Little and Mohit Sharma. The match will start at 7.30 pm Indian time. (agency)