IPL Pulse: Dreaming, no sleeping

Did you finally catch up on all the sleep you promised? Well, you better have because IPL action is back tonight and an early bedtime isn't.

Here's Cricbuzz Pulse, your two-minute morning scan of the IPL-verse.

Looking forward to tonight in five lines

• Vaibhav Sooryavanshi vs Kagiso Rabada
• GT's top-three will be keen to bounce back after a rare failure
• A decisive race for the Orange Cap between Sooryavanshi and Sai Sudharsan
• GT hold the edge 7-3 over RR in overall head-to-head
• Chasing teams have lost both Playoff games so far

Parthiv Patel rebutted the theory of GT being a "set template" team. "We were sitting pretty at number 2 on the points table," he said.

The hopeful-foreshadowing award goes to Sai Sudharsan for skipping nets and opting for a shadow batting session.

The scheming-studiously award goes to Shubman Gill and Ashish Nehra for spending time discussing tactics and plans.

The check-your-pulse award goes to all bowlers set to bowl after witnessing 240+ scores in both Playoff games.

The 'tis-but-a-scratch award goes to Riyan Parag and Ravindra Jadeja for playing despite carrying injuries.

The dare-to-dream award goes to both GT and RR — the side winning Q2 has gone on to win the IPL only three out of fifteen times.

The opening pairs operate very differently. Jaiswal and Sooryavanshi favour belligerence, while Gill and Sudharsan are methodical. The Royals could go too hard too early, while the Titans risk not going hard enough — they are yet to chase a total over 210 since 2025.

"Everybody has their different way of playing," asserted Parthiv Patel.

Dhruv Jurel confirmed Vaibhav Sooryavanshi does not "give a damn" about any bowler.

Six of the last seven matches in IPL 2026 have been won by the side batting first.

Reckless prediction for tonight's match

There will be more mid-innings theatrics, and it will last longer than the second innings.