When the dream of hat-trick of victory is about to be fulfilled and suddenly someone comes and shatters it, then it is a shock. In the last match, Rinku Singh of KKR gave a similar shock to Gujarat Titans. Due to the shock, that dream was broken, but now Gujarat will try to recover from it. The challenge before the Punjab Kings is how to stop him? Will Gabbar i.e. his captain Shikhar Dhawan fight alone like in the last match or will the entire Punjab team push hard after taking a lesson. The 18th match of IPL 2023 in Mohali is going to be interesting regarding this.
This will be the first clash in IPL 2023 between Punjab Kings and Gujarat Titans, which will be played in Mohali. At the same time, this will be the fourth match of both teams this season. In the 3-3 matches played earlier, both the teams won 2-2 matches while losing 1-1. The big thing is that after losing the last match, both teams will be desperate to return to the winning track. In the last match, KKR sensationally defeated Gujarat Titans. Whereas Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Punjab Kings.
There will be a close fight in Gujarat-Punjab
The problem of Punjab is that it seems completely dependent on the batting of its captain Shikhar Dhawan. In the last match, 99 out of 143 runs were scored by Dhawan alone. The plus point for Punjab Kings against Gujarat Titans is that the match is at their home ground. In 56 IPL matches played in Mohali, Punjab Kings have won 30 and lost 26. The team batting first on this ground has won 24 times while the team chasing runs has won 32 times.
A score of 200 plus was made 11 times in Mohali
The match between Gujarat and Punjab is expected to be high scoring as the mood of Mohali's stadium is like this. So far, teams have crossed the 200-run mark in T20 cricket overall 11 times, in which 6 times this has happened only during IPL matches.
Who has how much guts, we will see in Mohali.
As far as both the teams are concerned, Gujarat Titans may see the return of Hardik Pandya, who did not play the last match due to illness.
