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Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Gujarat Titans (GT) have been the IPL teams to beat in IPL 2022. They occupy the top two positions in the IPL point table at the time of writing (the standings will change if RCB wins against RR on Tuesday). The two sides will look to continue with the momentum wave they have been riding.
Hyderabad handed Gujarat their first and only defeat of the tournament on April 11. Openers Abhishek Sharma and Kane Williamson scored the bulk of the runs in the chase of 168 runs. This game is more of a 'batters-take-all' clash with both sides comprising quality bowlers.
The Titans will hope their batters can combat the Sunrisers' pace quartet and take advantage of a relatively brittle middle order.
However, there are a few player matchups that will determine the outcome of the game and we will take a look at the key player battles.
Check out the IPL purple cap 2022 here.
#1 GT pacer Mohammed Shami vs Kane Williamson
Mohammed Shami has dismissed Kane Williamson four times in all of their T20 clashes and will look to dismiss the SRH skipper early on in the innings. While Williamson has managed to get his groove of sorts, Shami has been key for the Titans with 10 wickets so far.
The contest will be a clash between Williamson's solid technique and Shami's guile. The Kiwi skipper slammed a 47-ball-56 in their last encounter against GT and will look to notch up another good knock.
#2 Hardik Pandya vs Umran Malik
The GT skipper has been in scintillating form in IPL 2022 with 295 runs from six games at an average of 73.75. He's stacked up three half-centuries in this edition already at a strike rate of 136.57.
Up against him will be SRH speedster Umran Malik, who has been one of the more improved bowlers this season with 10 wickets. His raw pace was fine-tuned by Sunrisers bowling coach Dale Steyn and the results are out there.
The two players had an intense battle the previous time these two sides clashed. Read more about it here. We can only wait and watch to see who will come up on top this time round.
#3 Shubman Gill vs Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Bhuvneshwar Kumar seems to have rediscovered his mojo with nine wickets from seven games. He also seems to have gone back to his miserly self with an economy rate of 7.41 and troubling batters with his swing.
The pacer has also enjoyed bowling to GT opener Shubman Gill, who has had a topsy turvy journey in IPL 2022. The opener cracked two big scores of 84 and 96 in GT's second and third games respectively, but has struggled to get into double digits in the four matches since.
Bhuvneshwar has dismissed the batter twice in all of their IPL encounters. Is payback on the cards?
