Impressive Titans eye ticket to dream home final
Royals, meanwhile, will be hoping for a repeat of 2008, when they won the inaugural edition of the IPL
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Likely XIs
Strategy punt
- Miller has had his most productive season since 2013. He averages 83.5 against spin, this season, but against Royals, he will have a challenge after having been dismissed by Chahal and Ashwin a combined five times. So Samson will do well to keep a few overs of both his trump cards for the back end.
- Buttler has been dismissed four times by Rashid Khan in seven innings, while managing a strike rate of 60 in the five overs he has played off him. Overall, he has struck at 131.16 in the powerplay but is coming into this game on the back of three single-digit scores. It may be worth playing on his ego and bringing in Rashid early to test the waters.
Stats that matter
- Titans have successfully chased down targets six times out of seven. The only instance where they missed out was when Daniel Sams defended nine off the final over for Mumbai Indians.
- Titans' run rate of 11.6 between overs 16-20 in a chase is the highest this season. Essentially, it means they've backed themselves to score big in the final few overs. Royals run rate of 8.3 is the lowest.
- Saha missed the first five games, but since his entry into the season, only Buttler (357 runs) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (333) have scored more than his 312 runs.
- Royals are the only team to have three batters (Buttler, Samson, Hetmyer) to have hit 20 plus sixes this season.
- Samson's eight wins after losing tosses is the most for a captain in a season.
Shashank Kishore is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo