Match 52 of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season will see a clash between the Rajasthan Royals (RR) and an in-form Gujarat Titans (GT) side on May 9, in Jaipur.
For the game, here we present our preview and predictions.
The Royals have ridden high on the back of their opening bowlers and batters this season. The destructive opening pair of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has wreaked havoc on the opposition bowlers, while their opening pace duo of Jofra Archer and Nandre Burger has been a massive problem for the opposition batters.
However, barring Dhruv Jurel and Donovan Ferreira, the RR middle order hasn’t really accounted for many runs, and with the exception of one or two games, captain Riyan Parag has been miserably out of form.
Their most recent fixture was against the Delhi Capitals, where their openers failed to contribute and went early, but Parag and Jurel stitched together a big partnership to steer RR towards a big total before Ferreira’s late blitz of 47* off 14 took his side to a massive total of 220+.
It was one of those rare days that saw the RR quicks go for a lot of runs as DC openers KL Rahul and Pathum Nissanka made merry. Nitish Rana too contributed with a quickfire 30+ score to help the Capitals chase down the high total. Even though RR lost the game, they would have been glad to see their captain back in form.
RR are currently sitting in fourth spot in the league table with six wins out of ten games and need to win this one to strengthen their chances of securing one of the play-off spots.
As for the Titans, they started the season poorly, losing the first two matches of their campaign, while the third one they won came on the last ball. However, they have found their mojo since then, winning three on the trot.
Captain Shubman Gill is back in form and scoring runs freely. The opening pair of Jos Buttler and Sai Sudharsan has also contributed handsomely. With the ball, meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada, Jason Holder, and Washington Sundar have made crucial contributions.
GT’s last match was against the high-flying Punjab Kings, who were on a winning run. But the GT bowlers reduced them to 47/5 early on, with Siraj and Rabada breathing fire in the opening spell. Both pacers took two wickets each, but it was the Barbadian all-rounder Jason Holder who took the cake with figures of 4/24. If not for a lower-order partnership between newcomer Suryansh Shedge and Marcus Stoinis, PBKS wouldn’t have been able to cross even 120.
In response, Sai Sudharsan led the chase with a crucial fifty, though the PBKS bowlers kept chipping away at the wickets. The experienced Washington Sundar then finished the chase with a six off the second-to-last ball to take GT home. In the end, the Titans made it look tougher than it should have been, winning the match with one ball remaining — too close for comfort.
Coming to this match-up, GT’s opening bowlers will need to be wary of RR’s opening batters. If Jaiswal and Sooryavanshi get off to a good start, they could spell trouble for the Titans. It was against this same bowling attack that Sooryavanshi scored his first IPL century last season, and he’d fancy their pace once again. It could make sense to bring on Rashid Khan early and test the teenager against spin.
Alternatively, if GT bat first, they will need to post a 220+ total as the RR openers and lower-order batters Donovan Ferreira and Shubham Dubey are capable of chasing down big totals.
The Jaipur pitch is batter-friendly with relatively smaller boundaries; whoever wins the toss will likely look to chase, as the conditions won’t change much over the course of the game.
We feel that RR have an edge in this game, as their batting is slightly superior to GT’s. Therefore, we’re backing the first-ever IPL champions to win this game and end the 2022 IPL champions’ three-game winning streak.
Fantasy XI: Shubman Gill (c), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Jos Buttler, Dhruv Jurel (wk), Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Donovan Ferreira, Rashid Khan, Jofra Archer, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj
Venue: Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Winners Prediction: Rajasthan Royals
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