This match promises to be a key battle given two of the rising stars of Indian cricket and future captaincy prospects, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant, will be up against each other. Here are the top five key battles to look out for:

Umesh Yadav vs David Warner

David Warner has generally had the better of Indian pacers in T20s, but Gujarat’s Umesh Yadav is one such bowler who has always troubled the Capitals batter. In 11 innings that Warner has played against Umesh, he has scored 99 runs in 68 balls at a strike rate of 145.88 but has also been dismissed on five occasions and his average is a lowly 19.8.

Death Overs Bowling of Two Teams

There has been a significant difference between the two teams when it comes to death over bowling. While the Delhi Capitals have leaked runs at 13.8 runs per over in the final five, their competitors have been very miserly. The Gujarat Titans have conceded at only 9.2 runs per over. When it comes to picking wickets in death overs in IPL 2024, Gujarat has picked 14 in comparison to Delhi’s nine.

 

Rishabh Pant vs Shubman Gill

While Shubman Gill is sitting in the top five of the orange cap leaderboard of IPL 2024, Rishabh Pant has improved massively after his comeback. In IPL 2024, Pant has the best strike rate among all batters against pacers. Pant is striking at 193 against pace bowling, which is the highest of any batter to have faced a minimum of 30 deliveries in overs 7-15 this season.

Gill has been one of the slow starters this season when it comes to the strike rates. He strikes at 120 during the first 10 balls of his innings. In the next 10 balls, it increases up to 160.

Battle of the Toss

The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad has seen a captain winning the toss and electing to field first a staggering 79 per cent of the time. This stadium has the third-highest win percentage for teams chasing of all grounds in the IPL that have hosted 10 or more games since 2021.

Thus, the toss is going to be very crucial in this game. Moreover, the Capitals have the best win percentage at this venue. They have won 66.6 per cent of their games in six games, even more than the hosts Titans.

Tristan Stubbs vs Rashid Khan

Gujarat has picked up the most number of wickets (101) of all teams in the last five overs, also called the death overs. Rashid Khan has been one of the most important reasons for that happening. The Afghan superstar has picked up 21 wickets in overs 16-20 and most importantly conceded runs at only 7.75, being the second most economical bowler in that phase. This pushed the batters to go for runs against other bowlers and, in return, lose their wickets.

On the other hand, in Tristan Stubbs, the Delhi Capitals have found a batter who has been in the best form of his life. The Proteas batter averaged 54.8 while scoring 548 runs in 18 innings at a strike rate of 169. Both his strike rate and average in 2024 have been the best in his three-year-old career so far.

First Published: Apr 16 2024 | 6:01 PM IST