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Both top orders misfired in their opening game. Can they bounce back?
Big picture
Near-close finishes, with middle order sealing the win for both these teams in their respective first matches of the season.
In the chase, the middle order kept up with the pressure and finished things off with two balls to spare. Oh, and Hardik bowled his full quota seemingly without a hitch (we’re not jinxing anything here). On the whole, Hardik & Co. should be content with the winning start but there were a few hiccups in their victory.
Varun Aaron went for 45 runs in his four overs although he picked up two wickets. There was a wobble at the top order with Shubman Gill departing for a duck and Vijay Shankar following him soon after. But the win means it is likely they will take a few more games to assess if they need to be making any big changes.
In the news
Possible XI
Gujarat Titans: 1 Shubman Gill, 2 Matthew Wade (wk), 3 Vijay Shankar, 4 Abhinav Manohar, 5 Hardik Pandya (capt), 6 David Miller, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Varun Aaron, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Mohammed Shami
Delhi Capitals: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Tim Seifert, 3 Mandeep Singh, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), 5 Rovman Powell, 6 Lalit Yadav, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 Mushtafizur Rahman/ Lungi Ngidi
Strategic punt
Hardik may want to hold his quicks back and bowl Rashid Khan when Rishabh Pant is at the crease. Pant has gotten out to him twice and has struck at just 110 against him, which is the second-worst for him against a bowler (minimum 30 balls faced) in T20s
Stats that matter
Sruthi Ravindranath is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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