Table of Contents
Lucknow Super Giants' global Director of Cricket Operations, Tom Moody, termed the Gujarat Titans a 'predictable' side after their loss to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the first Qualifier of IPL 2026 on Tuesday.
Moody said that GT's bowlers did not really have the tools to succeed on pitches that did not provide help for the bowlers. Moody appeared on ESPNCricinfo to offer his insights after LSG finished tenth on the IPL 2026 points table and were the first team to be eliminated from playoffs contention.
RCB make second IPL final in a row
On Tuesday, the Gujarat Titans met RCB in the first qualifier in Dharamsala. The winner of the clash would directly qualify for the IPL final, to be held in Ahmedabad on May 31, while the loser would get another chance to make the summit clash.
GT chose to bowl after winning the toss, but the decision backfired. Venkatesh Iyer started aggressively but fell in the second over. Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal then made an excellent partnership of 72 runs in 6 overs before Kohli chopped one on from Jason Holder.
Holder got rid of Padikkal in the same over, and so Rajat Patidar and Krunal Pandya were united at the crease. The two started cautiously, but took the occasional risk. RCB captain Patidar was dropped twice in the same over and decided to make it hurt.
The floodgates were ultimately broken when left-arm seamer Kulwant Khejroliya, playing his first match of the season, conceded 28 runs off his second over. That pushed Patidar and Pandya's partnership to 95 runs in about eight overs.
RCB added 114 runs in the last six overs, and Patidar made an unbeaten 93 from just 33 balls, putting to rest all the doubts about his inability to play pace. RCB ended with 254/5, the highest total in the IPL playoffs.
The Gujarat Titans never really got going. Sai Sudharsan was hit-wicket bizarrely as his bat slipped from his hands and crashed onto the stumps. GT's famed top three were all dismissed within the power play, and the team was 5 down in the power play when Rasikh Salam bowled a double-wicket maiden.
Rahul Tewatia made a fighting fifty, but all it did was reduce GT's loss margin to a still brutal 92 runs. Jacob Duffy took three wickets while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Krunal Pandya, and Rasikh Salam took two each.
They are the bowling version of SRH- Tom Moody on Gujarat Titans
After the match, Moody spoke on ESPNCricinfo about GT's limitations as a team and compared them to the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Moody said that the Gujarat Titans bowlers were like the Sunrisers Hyderabad's batters. Moody analysed that both groups needed a certain type of pitch to succeed and may not necessarily have the tools to succeed when the conditions were not in their favour.
"When there's zero movement in the surface, that's when they're vulnerable, because they don't have the real extreme change-ups, you know, of pace and variety," he said.
"They do become predictable for that. It's a bit like the Sunrisers Hyderabad. As soon as the Sunrisers are put on a surface that's doing a bit, that batting line-up really struggles. So it's the complete opposite."
"You get the ball just nipping or swinging a little bit, and Siraj and Rabada - all the very best to you, because you're going to have a tough examination. This is a very, very flat surface. And we saw that in the powerplay."
"And they don't have the answers, they don't have the huge change-ups of pace, the deception, they don't have the [Lungi] Ngidi slower ball or something [making the batters] go reaching for it. They've got them, but they're not their trump card," Moody continued.
"Their trump card is when it's doing a bit, and they can hit that hard length and create issues both on inside and on the outside of the bat," he concluded.
Gujarat Titans' next match
The Gujarat Titans know when and where they will be playing their next match, but do not know who they are playing yet. They will play in Qualifier 2 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh, on May 29.
The Gujarat Titans will face the winners of the Eliminator. The Eliminator will be played between SRH and the Rajasthan Royals in Mullanpur on Wednesday. The winner of Qualifier 2 will qualify for the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, where defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru lie in wait.
