Gujarat Titans look to forget Rinku Singh's onslaught against Punjab Kings

Defending champions Gujarat Titans smarting from Rinku Singhs lastover blitzkrieg would like to forget that nightmarish night and get back to winning ways when they take on gritty Punjab Kings in an Indian Premier League match here on ThursdayGT had several heroes on that electrifying night including young Sai Sudarshan Vijay Shankar and the hattrick man from Afghanistan Rashid Khan who led the side in place of unwell Hardik PandyaBut Rinku had other ideasWhen the match looked as good as over the Uttar Pradesh batter pulled the rabbit out of the hat for Kolkata Knight Riders smashing five maximums in the last over to stun the home teamThat lastball defeat will hurt GT for years to come but in the immediate they would like to forget it and get on with the next gameGT currently fourth on the table with four points from three games still have a great chance to top the chart but for that they will have to collectively come together against PBKS who are fast emerging as one of the most difficult sides to surmountGoing by their current form PBKS eightwicket loss to Sunrisers Hyderabad could just be an aberration given the form of their captain Shikhar Dhawan and young leftarm bowler Arshdeep SinghDhawans innings in Hyderabad on April 9 was a testament to the stalwarts resilience and his ability to stay composed as wickets fell like ninepins at the other endHis 99 in a losing cause was far bigger and better than playing a winning hand in the match against Rajasthan Royals with an unbeaten 86 or a strokefilled 40 against KKRGT would be wary of Dhawans form and Hardik would know all too well how the veteran Delhi cricketer would be itching to once again prove himselfThis could well be a contest of oneupmanship between Dhawan and Shubman Gill with the former still wanting to prove himself and be in contention for a place in the India squad for the ODI World Cup at home later this yearThe way Dhawan and young opening partner Prabhsimran Singh have blasted off in powerplays gives an indication that they are unlikely to alter their strategy against GT who have bowlers of the calibre of Mohammed Shami Hardik and Rashid to name a fewLower down PBKS have the most expensive buy in IPL history allrounder Sam Curran besides Liam Livingstone and Jitesh Sharma while in the bowling department Arshdeep and Nathan Ellis have created quite a few problems for the rivalsAlso readIPL 2023 Points Table KKR displace RCB to bag 3rd spot Gujarat Titans sit atopGT though have their own firepower boasting of the likes of Gill toporder batter Sudarshan and Shankar late bloomer at 32 who struck an unbeaten 24ball 63 to guide the side to a 200plus total in their game against KKRHad it not been for Rinkus breathtaking lastover mayhem Vijay could well have been patting his back for the wonderful effort Unfortunately that was not to be and things turned upsidedown in the last over bowled by Yash DayalGT would perhaps take a second look at their bowling combination and see how they can rotate their bowlers more efficientlyWith four premier bowlers in Shami Josh Little Alzarri Joseph and Rashid in their team they shouldnt have lost the game after posting 204 But then this is IPL and there are one Rinku too many itching to prove themselvesTeams fromPunjab Kings Shikhar Dhawan c Arshdeep Singh Baltej Singh Rahul Chahar Sam Curran Rishi Dhawan Nathan Ellis Gurnoor Brar Harpreet Brar Harpreet Singh Vidwath Kaverappa Liam Livingstone Mohit Rathee Prabhsimran Singh Kagiso Rabada Bhanuka Rajapaksa M Shahrukh Khan Jitesh Sharma Shivam Singh Matthew Short Sikandar Raza Atharva TaideGujarat Titans Hardik Pandya c Srikar Bharat Alzarri Joseph Josh Little Abhinav Manohar David Miller Mohammed Shami Darshan Nalkande Noor Ahmad Urvil Patel Rashid Khan Wriddhiman Saha R Sai Kishore Sai Sudharsan Pradeep Sangwan Dasun Shanaka Vijay Shankar Mohit Sharma Shivam Mavi Shubman Gill Odean Smith Rahul Tewatia Matthew Wade Jayant Yadav Yash DayalThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever