The Titans trusted their time-tested technique of taking the sport deep within the chase in opposition to Sunrisers Hyderabad and triumphed by seven wickets of their final sport whereas Kings, in pursuit of 200 set by Lucknow Tremendous Giants (LSG), had been undone by tearaway pacer Mayank Yadav’s 3/27.
The Titans will look to captain Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha for a brisk begin and the middle-order comprising Sai Sudharsan, David Miller, Vijay Shankar and Rahul Tewatia to offer the impetus within the second half of the innings.
The bowling group of right-arm pacers Azmatullah Omarzai and Umesh Yadav and Afghan pacers Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmed and veteran pacer Mohit Sharma will look to check the Kings.
After opening their marketing campaign with a victory over Delhi Capitals courtesy knocks from Englishmen Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone, the Kings will really feel they had been arduous finished by Dinesh Karthik of Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Yadav of Giants.
In each the contests, they had been in promising positions earlier than Karthik’s cameo took the sport away from them in Bengaluru, whereas in opposition to LSG, chasing 200, the Kings bottled up regardless of a 100- run opening affiliation between captain Shikhar Dhawan and Jonny Bairstow.
Dropping three wickets within the center overs derailed the chase, one thing which their assistant bowling coach Trevor Gonsalves zeroed in on as an space for enchancment. “We had been cruising. It was the three wickets that fell within the bunch because of which we had been sluggish. So, we’re fixing out these points,” Gonsalves stated on Wednesday.
The provision of Livingstone, who got here to bat decrease down his typical batting place in opposition to LSG due to a hamstring damage, continues to uncertain on match eve. Gonsalves stated a name on Livingstone shall be solely taken on the matchday.
Whereas the Kings’ bowling assault of pacers Kagiso Rabada (4 wickets in 3 matches), Sam Curran and Arshdeep Singh (4 wickets in 3 matches) and left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar (4 wickets in 3 matches) has stifled the opposition, runs leaked by Harshal Patel and Rahul Chahar are a matter of concern.
Relating to this, Gonsalves stated, “Not likely involved. They’re top-class gamers whether or not it’s Harshal or Rahul. They’ve gone by way of plenty of conditions the place they’ve been hit. They’ll come again very strongly.”