Gujarat Titans vs Chennai Super Kings - IPL 2022 Match 29: Who Will Win?

Chennai Super Kings Team Preview

The four times winners, and defending champions, Chennai Super Kings have looked a shadow of their normally dominant self after four straight IPL 2022 defeats; only the second time in their history they’ve lost four consecutive games. After defeat to the Sunrisers Hyderabad, head coach Steven Fleming said that the Super Kings simply need to improve their batting, bowling, and fielding. An obvious ask but a difficult task. Going into their fifth game, the Super Kings have registered only one 200 plus score and sub-par totals in the other three games (126, 131, and 154).

However, the team heeded their coach’s call and played quite differently, reversing their nightmare start in defeating the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 23 runs in Match 22 scoring 216, the highest score to date in the competition.

In the Super Kings’ 200th IPL match, we witnessed a splendidly entertaining third wicket partnership of 105 runs off 35 balls between Robin Uthappa and Shivam Dube. Uthappa eventually scored 88 runs off 50 balls (nine 6’s and four 4’s to give a strike rate of 176.00) and Dube 95 off 46 balls (eight 6’s and five 4’s for a strike rate of 206.52%). Uthappa is the third highest run-scorer in the 2022 IPL so far with 194 runs in five innings with an average strike rate of 163.20. Skipper Ravindra Jadeja’s was short lived as his was out for a golden duck. The Challengers will certainly be pleased with Wanindu Hasaranga’s performance as he managed to get two wickets in two deliveries at 201/3 (Uthappa) and 201/4.

The improved team’s batting performance was equally supported by the bowlers; young spinner Maheesh Theekshaana took four wickets (4/33) and Ravindra Jadeja three (3/39).

Can the Super Kings rediscover their former all-conquering form? Has their much improved performance with the bat, ball, and in the field turned the corner? We will see!

Gujarat Titans Team Preview

The Gujarat Titans were denied their fourth successive win by the Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 21. However, they bounced back and unleashed a comfortable win over the Rajasthan Royals by 37 runs. They stand tall at the top of the table with eight points, but just edge ahead of the Kolkata Knight Riders with a run rate of +0.450, by a margin of just 0.004.

While the Titans didn’t get off to the best of starts, they managed to fight back well. Matthew Wade scored 12 runs from 6 balls before being run out. Could the Australian wicketkeeper-batter be close to getting the axe? Wade is yet to make a valuable contribution and has only scored 68 runs in five matches (30, 1, 6, 19, 12). The bulk of the Titans runs were scored by Abhinav Manohar and Hardik Pandya, who was awarded the Player of the Match. Manohar scored 43 runs from 28 balls while Pandya scored an unbeaten 87 runs from 52 balls which took the Titans to 192/4. The duo managed to stitch an effective 86 run partnership, to take them to a challenging total to chase.

Royals’ Jos Buttler was a formidable force for the Titans bowlers. However, the momentum shifted from the Royals after Lockie Ferguson managed to take two vital wickets in an over (Ravichandran Ashwin at 56/2 and Buttler at 65/3). Ferguson was the most economical bowler at 5.75. Although debutant Yash Dayal was fairly expensive at the start of his spell, by the end of his overs, he had managed to take three wickets.

One way to get closer to all the action is by online cricket betting. Some of the leading IPL betting sites are backing Rashid Khan and Ferguson as top bowlers. Based on his performance in this match, we would have to back Ferguson for this market.

Toss Prediction

Are we starting to sound a little repetitive in our toss prediction section? You would be forgiven if you think this because it’s true. Every single captain to have won the toss has elected to bowl first and invite their opponents to bat in the first innings. As dew starts to form in the evening matches, handling a wet cricket ball can threaten the grip of the bowlers. Therefor by fielding first, the captain can minimise this threat.

Only a handful of teams have successfully managed to defend their score, so keep an eye out for the result of the toss and take this into account for your IPL prediction for the match today.

Pitch Conditions

The average first innings score at the Maharashtra Cricket Stadium is 178.2. There are many IPL betting markets that allow you to bet on the total runs for a different number of overs, so knowing that this is a fairly high-scoring pitch is useful. The average Powerplay score for the season so far is 41.5, while for the death overs its 59.2.

Conditions are forecast to be perfect for cricket: dry and sunny with a high of 37C and 57% humidity. This is a lower predicted humidity than previous matches which may not produce such a high amount of dew later in the evening for the fielding team in the second innings.