Chennai, May 23 (IANS) Gujarat Titans (GT) won the toss and opted to bowl first against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 Qualifier 1 at M.A. Chidambaram Stadium, here on Tuesday.
The winner of the match will directly qualify to the final whereas the losing side will get another opportunity to compete in the Qualifier 2, to be held on May 24 in Ahmedabad.
The Titans skipper Hardik Pandya said that his side has made one change with Darshan Nalkande coming in place of Yash Dayal while CSK are unchanged.
“We will bowl first. We heard dew will come, so we want to know what exactly to chase down. We were told to relax after getting into the top-2, but we didn’t want, want to stay focussed and play good cricket. We are a smart team, we don’t play only one way, we make sure to get the best out of the wicket and have adapted. Darshan Nalkande comes in place of Yash Daya,” Pandya said at the toss.
On the other hand, CSK skipper M.S. Dhoni said: “We wanted to bowl first, the reason being they’re an excellent chasing side. We’ve exploited the conditions slightly better, in a tournament like this, the boys have adapted really well. It’s important to back your strengths, the confidence level should be high.”
“They’ve been able to do that and that’s why we have done well. There was a lot of dew in the last game, but with the breeze around, we can’t say about it tonight, but it does look dry,” said Dhoni.
Playing XIs:
Chennai Super Kings: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devon Conway, Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu, Shivam Dube, Moeen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni(wk/c), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Maheesh Theekshana
Substitutes: Matheesha Pathirana, Michell Santner, Shubhranshu Senapati, Sahik Rashid, Akash Singh
Gujarat Titans: Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha(wk), Hardik Pandya (c), Dasun Shanaka, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Darshan Nalkande, Mohit Sharma, Noor Ahmad, Mohammed Shami
Substitutes: Vijay Shankar, Srikar Bharat, Jayant Yadav, Sai Sudharsan, Shivam Mavi
–IANS
bc/bsk
