Gujarat Titans vs Rajasthan Royals Prediction - IPL 2022 Match 71: Who Will Win?

Gujurat Titans Team Preview

The Gujurat Titans have had a debut Indian Premier League season to remember. At the end of the Group Stage, they sat at the top of the table with 20 points to their name - from the 14 matches that they played, they only lost four of them, and they ended with a Net Run Rate of +0.316, which was the best out of all of the teams.

However, their last match was against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, and they lost that match by eight wickets after a pretty average performance. The GT won the toss and decided to bat first, with the aim of putting a big score on the board. However, when their 20 overs had been bowled, they had managed to score a total of 168 runs, which was only about par on that wicket.

Their top batsman in the match was Hardik Pandya, who scored 62 from 47 balls. Wriddhiman Saha and David Miller chipped in with 31 from 22 balls and 34 from 25, while Rashid Khan hit a quickfire 19 from 6 at the end of the innings. If you feel like doing a spot of online cricket betting and want to put your money on a Top Batsman for the GT against the RR, then who would we opt for?

Well, Shubman Gill has been batting really nicely as of late, despite his low score in the last match, and we would be tempted to put our money on him to be their top batsman. In the 14 games that he has played to date, he has scored 403 runs at an average of 31, so we would not be surprised if he goes on to top score. If you do not want to put your money on Gil, than Pandya will be a good choice as the captain has scored 413 runs from 13 matches at an average of 41.30.

With 168 to defend, the GT bowlers would have known that their bowlers would need to be at the top of their game in order to win the match. The only way that they were really going to win this game was by picking up wickets, but they could just not manage to do that. Virat Kohli was the top scorer for the RCB, collecting 73 runs from 54 balls, while Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell chipped in with 44 off 38 and 40 off 18.

The pick of the bowlers for the GT was Khan, who picked up 2 wickets for 32 runs from his f4 overs. Mohammed Shami, Lockie Ferguson, and Pandya were expensive, bowling 6.4 overs between them for no wickets and conceding a total of 79 runs. When you only have a par score to defend, you really cannot afford to be that expensive when bowling.

If you would like to do some IPL betting on the best bowler for the GT against the RR, then who would we suggest you place your money on? Well, Khan is one of those bowlers that you really cannot ignore when making such bets. He has played in all 14 matches for the GT so far, and has picked up 18 wickets at an average of 21.56. So, if you are going to be making such a wager, it would make perfect sense to put your money on the spinner from Afghanistan.

Do we think that the selectors will make any changes to the GT playing XI that played and lost against the RCB in their final group match? Well, these players might have lost their last match, but they have been very impressive throughout the tournament, so there should be no knee-jerk reactions, especially since the last match was a dead rubber to them. We expect to see the same playing XI this time around against the RR.

Rajasthan Royals Team Preview

The Rajasthan Royals finished second in the IPL table with 18 points to their name, meaning that they only lost five matches. The Lucknow Super Giants also finished on 18 points, but the RR earned the all-important second spot courtesy of their better Net Run Rate.

Their last match of the competition was against the Chennai Super Kings, and they won the match by five wickets. The CSK won the toss and opted to bat first, looking to put a huge score on the board so that they could at least leave the tournament with something to cheer about. However, after a fantastic start thanks to Moeen Ali, where they had 80 runs on the board with just seven overs go, they lost their way and all they could muster in the end from their 20 overs was 150/6.

The pick of the bowlers for the RR was Obed McCoy, who collected 2 wickets for 20 runs from the 4 overs that he bowled. Yuzvendra Chahal was not that far behind with 2 wickets for 26 runs from 4 overs, while Ravi Ashwin picked up a wicket and went for 28 runs from his 4 overs. The most expensive bowler for the RR on the night was Trent Boult who conceded 44 runs from 4 overs at an economy of 11.00.

If you like to bet at IPL betting sites and want to place a wager on the best bowler for the RR against the GT, then who do we recommend you go ahead and put your money on? Well, there is one player that definitely stands out, and this is Chahal. In the 14 games that he has played to date for the RR this season, he has picked up 26 wickets at an average of 16.54. So, if you did decide to bet on him, you would definitely be in with a shot of winning such a bet.

With 151 needed to win the game and guarantee second spot, the RR batsman would have been pretty confident of winning the match with some ease. However, they made hard work of it in the end. Jos Buttler has lost the form that he had early on in the competition, and was out for 2 runs, while Devdutt Padikkal was bowled for 3 and Sanju Samson could only manage 15. However, Ashwin, who has been moved up the order, smashed 40 from 23 to see his team home with two balls to spare.

If you are going to place an IPL prediction on the top batsman for the RR against the GT, then who would we be happy to put our money on? Well, usually we would recommend Buttler, but he is out of form, so it is probably not worth it - watch him smash a century now! We are going to go a bit out of the box here and go for Ashwin. He has shown in recent games that he knows how to bat, so it would not come as much of a surprise to use if he was to end up as their top scorer.

Do we feel that the RR will make changes to their playing XI for this game? Well, the regular playing XI has been doing a very solid job for their franchise so far, so it would be quite harsh to replace any of them unless they are sick or injured. So, do not be too surprised to see the same playing XI against the GT as we saw against the CSK.

Toss Prediction

At the beginning of the 2022 IPL, all captains wanted to win the coin toss because it was providing the winning team with a huge advantage. The team that won the coin toss was winning 70% of the time because they would opt to field first and would avoid having to bowl in dewy conditions where the ball is practically impossible to grip, making it a nightmare to bowl and field.

However, as we enter the business end of this prestigious competition, the dew now seems to be less of an issue, and its impact on proceedings has decreased quite a bit. In fact, from the last ten tosses, the team that has won the toss has only won on two occasions. So, it would seem that now it is better to lose the toss than to win it.

So, making a correct toss prediction for this next match is not easy, but are not going to sit on the proverbial fence and will say that the team that wins the coin toss will decide to field first. You will see why in the following section.

Pitch Conditions

This match will be played at Eden Gardens, which is the first match that will be played at this venue in the 2022 Indian Premier League. The wicket at Eden Gardens is usually more of a batting track, although spinners do get a bit of assistance as the match progresses. Also, the fast bowlers get a bit of assistance early on in the innings, so they will not feel left out.

The average first innings score on the wicket is 155 runs, while the team that bats second have won 60% of the time at this venue. This is the reason why we believe that the winning captain at the toss will decide to bowl first and chase. Another reason why we think the winning captain will field first is because there is a slight change of precipitation during the match, and they will not want to take the risk of having to bowl in dewy conditions.