GT, RR brace for sudden-death showdown

Separated from the Eliminator by just forty-eight hours, it will be hard to shake off the Vaibhav Sooryavanshi hangover in Qualifier 2. He is all that the world's talking about, but in case we aren't treated to another episode of teenage rage, there are several other underplots to be bothered by.

For their second knockout bout, Rajasthan Royals face Gujarat Titans, crushed under a run-avalanche by RCB in Dharamsala. The wheels came off their bowling in the second half, when RCB took out 155 runs in ten overs. Teams can take time to recover from such a mauling. In tightly packed playoffs, there's no such comfort.

In direct contrast to RR's top-heavy effort against SRH, GT suffered an uncharacteristic implosion, with their hallowed trio – Shubman Gill, Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler – all getting out inside the Powerplay for only the second time ever. Six overs in, they were 51/5. No coming back from there.

It's been an oft-repeated sentiment that GT are a "set-pattern" team. Their openers rack up a big score, Kagiso Rabada and Mohammed Siraj do the early damage, and Rashid Khan/Jason Holder hold up the middle overs. Parthiv Patel, GT's assistant coach, rebutted the theory in the pre-match presser, reminding that the team, in their own style, sat pretty at No.2 on the points table until last week.

Looking beyond their winning template, there are some uncomfortable truths too. In 210+ run-chases since 2025, GT have lost seven out of seven. It doesn't help that, in two of their last three games, the Titans have conceded 240+ scores.

In a straight shootout, Sooryavanshi-Yashasvi Jaiswal's frenetic run-scoring outmatches Sudharsan-Gill's methodical approaches. Powerplay scores in Mullanpur, a relatively bigger ground, count for a lot. If GT run into a firing top three for RR, playing catch up will be a tall order.

But GT have other distinct strong points too: no team has taken more wickets in the middle overs (7-15) this season. Their strike-rate is the best, their dot-percentage is the highest. If they do end up getting bruised by RR's top-order, they have it in them to claw back.

When: GT vs RR, Qualifier 2, Friday, May 29 at 19:30 IST

Where: Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, New Chandigarh

What to expect: There's a whiff of rain in the air. In Delhi, 250 kms away, there were reports of thunderstorms and an orange alert. At the time of writing, the chance of precipitation is hovering around 15 percent in New Chandigarh across the length of the match. The afternoons have been scorching hot, with temperatures crossing 40 degrees. In the Eliminator, ropes and mats were out in full flow to counter dew in the second innings.

Head-to-head: GT lead 7-3 overall, the record is an even 2-2 since 2025.

Injuries/Availability: Both Riyan Parag and Ravindra Jadeja, under an injury cloud, played the Eliminator. Parag, though, could only jog around while batting, but was on the field throughout. Expect both to turn up for the game.

Jofra Archer has been a true spearhead for RR: watch out for his battle against Shubman Gill. Archer has dismissed Gill thrice in seven T20 innings; an average of 7.20 and a strike-rate of 120 makes for a lopsided head-to-head. On Thursday, Gill had his usually long stint in the nets but was tested by Gurnoor Brar's pace a couple of times. On one instance, Brar's extra lift induced a top edge off Gill's bat, something Archer would be looking to do with his own deceptive bounce.

Probable XII (RR): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Riyan Parag (c), Donovan Ferreira, Dasun Shanaka, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Yash Raj Punja, Brijesh Sharma, Sushant Mishra/Tushar Deshpande/Ravi Bishnoi

Injuries/Availability: No known injuries in the GT camp.

How do you stop Sooryavanshi? No one seems to have a clear answer. Notably, it was against the same opposition that Sooryavanshi announced himself with a century last year. This year, he has a couple of 30s against them.

In one of those games, he got into a mini-battle with Siraj. Hit for a first-ball six, the seamer took revenge with a sharp bumper. Both him and Rabada, excellent in the Powerplay this year, will be coming at the kid.

Separately, Jaiswal's poor returns against spin are glaring (striking at 111.11 this season). He's also been dismissed by Rabada thrice in six innings.

Probable XII (GT): Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Jason Holder, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Arshad Khan/Sai Kishore, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna

• Six of the last seven matches in IPL 2026 have been won by the side batting first. If GT win the toss, batting first is a no-brainer for them.
• In 15 previous editions since the inception of the current playoffs structure, only thrice has the winner of Q2 gone on to win the IPL (MI 2013, SRH 2016 and MI 2017).
• RR and GT have met in playoffs twice previously: 2022 Q1 and the final – both won by GT.

Quotes:

"No, I don't think there is any kind of temptation to tell Sai Sudharsan to go at a higher strike-rate. He has been very effective. He has been scoring at a fair strike-rate also. It's not that he is scoring under 100. If someone is scoring at 300, it doesn't mean that everyone has to strike at 300" – Parthiv Patel on Sai Sudharsan's strike-rate.

"His mantra is 'I don't want (to) give a damn about any bowler'" – Dhruv Jurel on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi after the Eliminator.