Lucknow Super Giants Director of Global Cricket Operations, Tom Moody on Tuesday termed Gujarat Titans as an ‘underestimated’ team after their defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first Qualifier of IPL 2026.
Moody said that GT bowlers did not really have the tools to succeed on pitches that did not provide help for the bowlers. Moody appeared on ESPN Cricinfo to give his insight after LSG finished tenth in the IPL 2026 points table and became the first team to be eliminated from the playoff race.
RCB reached second consecutive IPL final
Gujarat Titans faced RCB in the first qualifier in Dharamshala on Tuesday. The winner of this match will directly qualify for the IPL final to be held in Ahmedabad on May 31, while the loser will get another chance to reach the final.
GT won the toss and decided to bowl, but the decision backfired. Venkatesh Iyer started aggressively but fell in the second over. After this, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal made an excellent partnership of 72 runs in 6 overs, before Kohli gave one run to Jason Holder.
Holder dismissed Padikkal in the same over and thus Rajat Patidar and Krunal Pandya united at the crease. Both started cautiously, but took risks every now and then. RCB captain Patidar was dismissed twice in the same over and he decided to make it a loss.
The barrier was finally broken when left-arm fast bowler Kulwant Khejroliya, playing his first match of the season, gave away 28 runs in his second over. With this, the partnership between Patidar and Pandya reached 95 runs in about eight overs.
RCB added 114 runs in the last six overs and Patidar scored an unbeaten 93 off just 33 balls, dispelling all doubts about his inability to play at a fast pace. RCB finished with 254/5, the highest score in the IPL playoffs.
Gujarat Titans never really took off. Sai Sudarshan was strangely hit-wicketed as his bat slipped from his hand and hit the stumps. GT’s famous top three were all out in the power play, and the team was trailing by 5 runs in the power play when Rasikh Salam bowled a double-wicket maiden.
Rahul Tewatia scored a fighting half-century, but this reduced GT’s margin of defeat to 92 runs. Jacob Duffy took three wickets while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Krunal Pandya and Rasikh Salam took two wickets each.
He is the bowling version of SRH-Tom Moody at Gujarat Titans
After the match, Moody spoke on ESPN Cricinfo about GT’s limitations as a team and compared them to Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Moody said that Gujarat Titans bowlers were like Sunrisers Hyderabad batsmen. Moody analyzed that both groups require a certain type of pitch to succeed and that they do not necessarily have the tools to succeed when circumstances are not in their favor.
“That’s when there’s zero movement on the surface, that’s when they’re vulnerable, because they don’t have real extreme changes of motion and variation,” he said.
“They become predictable to it. It’s a bit like Sunrisers Hyderabad. As soon as Sunrisers are put on a surface that is performing a bit, that batting order really struggles. So it is quite the opposite.”
“You swing or swing the ball a little bit, and Siraj and Rabada – good luck to you, because you are going to be severely tested. It is a very flat surface. And we saw it in the powerplay.”
Moody added, “And they don’t have the answers, they don’t have the big changes of pace, the deception, they don’t have (Lungi) Ngidi’s slower ball or anything (for the batsmen to get to him). They have them, but they are not their trump cards.”
He concluded, “His trump card is when he is performing a bit well, and he can hit that hard length and cause problems both inside and outside the bat.”
next match of gujarat titans
Gujarat Titans know when and where they will play their next match, but do not yet know who they will be playing. They will play Qualifier 2 on May 29 at the Maharaja Yadvendra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur, New Chandigarh.
Gujarat Titans will face the winners of the eliminator. The eliminator will be played between SRH and 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 Bangalore await.
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