In a first for the IPL, Gujarat Titans managed to keep the same bowling duo operating throughout the powerplay in their clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Ahmedabad on Tuesday—delivering the new-ball threat across five consecutive matches within the ten-over window. The storyline of IPL 2026 has increasingly pointed to Mohammad Siraj and Kagiso Rabada as the league’s most dangerous fresh-ball partnership, with Gujarat striking early so consistently that their top order set-ups have rarely been allowed to breathe.
GT’s relentless powerplay dominance in Ahmedabad
- Across this GT vs SRH contest in Ahmedabad, the Titans used Siraj and Rabada as the bowling pair for the entire powerplay, and they did it for five games in a row in the same season stretch.
- Gujarat’s bowlers finished the powerplay with 25 wickets in total during the phase across the relevant run of matches, underlining how often they have turned the first ten overs into a decisive advantage.
- The duo struck at a remarkable rate in the opening six overs, taking wickets every 17.2 deliveries during that span.
- Rabada’s 16 wickets in the powerplay this season stand as the joint second-best tally by any bowler across an IPL campaign.
- The conditions in Ahmedabad suited the taller fast-bowling profiles, and Rabada and Siraj repeatedly found the areas that trouble top-order batters—hammering hard lengths and pulling the batters into mistakes.
- By the end of the powerplay, SRH were 34/4 in their chase of 169, with Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Ishan Kishan all back in the dugout early.
- Gujarat’s discipline in the early overs was also visible in shot geography: on back-of-length or good-length deliveries, their bowlers hit those “good or back” areas 84.3% of the time in the powerplay—an IPL-high figure among all teams.
The way the wickets arrived reflected a clear plan. Siraj began the first over with movement away, and then continued to test the batters from the good-length zone. On the fourth ball, he swung one into the pads of Head, forcing a top-edge that landed safely only in the hands of Nishant Sindhu at deep backward point. That wicket-maiden didn’t just remove a batter—it set the pattern for what Rabada would attempt next: pressure from the same length and a willingness to hit the stumps’ corridor.
In the second over, Rabada looked to challenge Abhishek Sharma from a similar channel. His first delivery was pitched up into the scoring area, and Sharma made contact that cleared long-off for six. But Rabada immediately reset. On the fourth delivery of that over, he returned to a back-of-length line that cramped Abhishek for space even after the batter tried to step across, and Abhishek ended up dragging the ball into the wicket.
Rabada then continued the momentum by removing Ishan Kishan in his next over. Once again, the key was hard length after pitching, this time with movement away from the SRH wicketkeeper-batter. Kishan chased it, but the ball beat his timing and he edged to Jos Buttler behind the stumps.
With those strikes, SRH’s chase of 169 was left in trouble at the end of the powerplay — four down, and facing the kind of early scoreboard pressure that often decides T20 run-chases.
Gujarat’s form this year has been strongly shaped by their bowling group rather than just their batting fireworks. In eight victories, their bowlers have received the Player of the Match award seven times, a sign of how frequently the outcome has been sealed by early breakthroughs and sustained pressure.
The common thread behind the Titans’ success is straightforward: they have repeatedly found a way to land deliveries that resemble the “Test match length” in a T20 context. In other words, they are hitting the good-length and back-of-length areas with regularity—areas that are notoriously hard to execute against in a format built for aggression. Rabada and Siraj have kept persisting with those plans, and the payoff has been visible: in the seven matches GT have won, the pair has combined for 21 wickets at an average of 14.85.
Gujarat have also managed to keep their identity intact even after the impact player rule entered the league’s flow. With their bowlers driving the momentum in the second half of IPL 2026, the Titans have climbed to the top of the Points Table and are now well positioned for a top-two finish as well.
