The ‘permutation and combinations’ game is ON for the pundits with things getting tighter in the top half of the points table.

…But it is something which is bothering our boys, who have only one aim in sight – Get three Ws in as many remaining games and not depend on results elsewhere to make it to the Playoffs.

Up next is a match against Gujarat Titans, who are firmly placed in the qualification race. Ahead of the key fixture, our Head Coach Mahela Jayawardene opined how the opening partnerships have played a pivotal role in getting good starts in the last few games.

“The openers do play a very valuable part in establishing the tone. Especially with the batting line-up that we have, when we get a good start, it always complements us for the rest of the innings. And that's what we wanted to do.

“The way Rohit's been converting his starts right now gives us a lot of advantage and Ryan has been enjoying batting with him as well. He's getting bilingual experience out there in the middle. Things are falling into place overall in every department.

“I think our fielding has been really good & we've converted a lot of opportunities. That's something that we've emphasised a lot with the group that we have,” Mahela said.

Talking about GT’s in-form top-order batters and the contribution in their team’s frequent 200+ totals, MJ praised the Gill-Sudharsan duo while backing our bowling unit to negate that threat by sticking to the plans.

“I think these two guys have been very consistent and just the two of the top three have scored 75% of their runs. So that's a challenge that our bowling unit will have and we’ll have to work towards that.

“At the same time, runs scored… We wanted to build a bowling attack that counters that. I think we've managed to do that in the last four or five games where we're bowling teams out, trying to control the run rates and keep it to that 170-180 mark. That gives you an opportunity, as the margins are very small.

“It comes down to 10 or below most of the time [in run chases]. The difference is always going to be the bowling. So, that's a challenge that every team has and whoever executes that better has a better opportunity to do well,” Jayawardene said.

Meanwhile, our Head Coach also applauded Bumrah’s impact and how his return from injury gave a major boost to the bowling department.

“When we set up the team during retentions, we all knew how valuable Jassi was going to be. We knew he wouldn't be available for the first few games, but he made a good recovery. It didn't take long for him to get into the stride as well.

“The good thing about Jasprit is that he's got a lot of control and confidence and he gives us a completely different dimension to this attack. His pace is getting better and better, so execution is better. We've seen that in the last four or five games,” MJ concluded.