The Gujarat Titans will take on the Kolkata Knight Riders in match 13 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on April 9, 2023. The match promises to be a blockbuster with the defending champions, KKR, taking on the two-time winners, GT, on their home turf.
GT is coming into this fixture on the back of a comfortable victory over Delhi Capitals (DC) by six wickets. In the first innings, Mohammad Shami (3/41), Alzarri Joseph (2/29), and Rashid Khan (3/31) did a magnificent job with the ball to restrict DC to 162/8. After a mini-collapse in the top order, Sai Sudharshan took control of things and scored an unbeaten 62 off 48 balls before David Miller came in and finished the job with 31 off 16.
On the other hand, KKR ensured Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) bit the dust at Eden Gardens as they won by a whopping 81 runs. After being reduced to 89/5, they rose like a phoenix, courtesy of a 103-run partnership between Shardul Thakur and Rinku Singh, who helped the Knights post a score of 204. RCB got off a steady start, but once Sunil Narine got through the defence of Virat Kohli, the Red and Blacks collapsed like a pack of cards. Varun Chakravarthy and debutant Suyash Sharma were the architects behind RCB’s collapse.
Although KKR will travel to Ahmedabad with their tails up, they are yet to win a match against the Titans. They have faced each other only once where Gujarat defeated Kolkata by a margin of eight runs.
In terms of team news, KKR will be without their captain, Shreyas Iyer, who has been ruled out of the tournament due to a lower back injury and is scheduled to undergo surgery. The team will also be without veteran Bangladeshi all-rounder Shakib Al Hassan, who has cited international commitments and personal reasons for his unavailability. However, Shakib’s compatriot, Litton Das, is expected to join the team before the match. Meanwhile, Titans will miss Kane Williamson for the rest of the tournament and has been replaced by Sri Lanka’s white-ball captain Dasun Shanaka.
The match will be broadcast in several languages across different TV channels, including Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 3, Star Sports Select 1, Star Sports Select 1 HD, and Star Sports HD1. The match will start at 3:30 PM IST.
