New Delhi, May 17: As IPL 2025 resumes after an unexpected break, 2022 champions Gujarat Titans’ (GT) restart their aim of maintaining themselves for a top two finish when they take on Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday evening.

The Shubman Gill-led GT currently lead the points table with 16 points and are just one win away from sealing a spot in the playoffs. DC, on the other hand, are at fifth place with 13 points and their chances of entering the playoffs look a bit stiffer, considering left-arm fast-bowler Mitchell Starc is not coming back to India for the remainder of the tournament.

The foundation of GT’s success in IPL 2025 lies in their top three batters – captain Shubman Gill, B Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler. Statistics from Cricket-21 fully illustrate the awe-inspiring efficiency of GT’s top three - its batting average in the first ten overs stands at a whopping 92.7.

Openers Gill and Sudharsan, with 508 and 509 runs respectively, have been great in surviving the power-play, resulting in GT losing only seven wickets in batting power-play, the fewest scalps lost by a team in the competition so far – even as their runs per over metric stands at 9.1. With Gill, Sudharsan and Buttler (500 runs) going great guns, it has meant that GT haven’t suffered much damage in middle and death overs.

They have lost only 19 (fewest amongst all ten teams) and 23 wickets in middle and death overs respectively, while their run rates in both phases have been 9.8 and 12.2 respectively, which again has been the best amongst all teams in this competition so far.

With the ball, GT’s efficiency has been led by pacer Prasidh Krishna, currently leading wicket-taker’s chart with 20 scalps while fellow fast-bowler Mohammed Siraj (15 scalps) and left-arm spinner R Sai Kishore (14 scalps) have lent him admirable support.

On the other hand, the breather in the tournament would have given DC some time to reassess their plans and now mark their run with eagerness in the business phase of the competition. After winning their first four matches, DC could manage just two victories in their last five games, including a Super Over win over Rajasthan Royals (RR) at their second home venue, where they haven’t been able to crack the code of making it their fortress.

At the heart of DC’s slump has been the lack of stability and constant shuffling of their batting order. So far, DC have tried six batters in the top order, which is staggering. This also reflects in their first ten overs batting average being just 29.7, the second lowest among all ten teams and losing 22 wickets in power-play, the most scalps any side has lost in this phase.

DC’s batting going downhill has coincided with KL Rahul’s batting returns going down and one would expect him to step up and deliver for the side in what is a crunch week for Axar Patel & Co. The batters also need to have proper communication amongst themselves, as DC have been a part of nine run-outs, the most for any team in the competition.

With the ball, depending on whether Mustafizur Rahman will be available straightaway after completing his national duty in Dubai on Saturday, DC’s fast bowling looks a little thin. In this case, a lot will depend on how Axar, Kuldeep Yadav and Vipraj Nigam fare in the middle and death overs. One can only hope that with the race to the playoffs and the temperature in New Delhi heating up, DC find ways to counter a hard to stop GT, who have been simply efficient in all departments.

When: Sunday, May 18 at 7:30 PM IST

Where: Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi

Where to watch: Star Sports Network (TV) and JioHotstar (live streaming)

Squads

Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (captain), Faf du Plessis, KL Rahul (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Tristan Stubbs, Abishek Porel, Vipraj Nigam, Sediqullah Atal, Karun Nair, Ashutosh Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Sameer Rizvi, T. Natarajan, Darshan Nalkande, Dushmantha Chameera, Ajay Mandal, Manvanth Kumar, Tripurana Vijay, Madhav Tiwari and Mustafizur Rahman

Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill (captain), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Prasidh Krishna, Rahul Tewatia, R Sai Kishore, Washington Sundar, Sherfane Rutherford, Rashid Khan, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Shahrukh Khan, Nishant Sindhu, Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat, Manav Suthar, Dasun Shanaka, Karim Janat, Kumar Kushagra, Gerald Coetzee, Arshad Khan, Ishant Sharma, Jayant Yadav, and Kulwant Khejroliya

(IANS)

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