The shock defeat Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered at the hands of Kings XI Punjab in a shortened game would have brought cheers in the Sunrisers Hyderabad camp here.
For, the Punjab outfit did a huge favour to Sunrisers as that loss meant that Royal Challengers has to do well in its last two games — against Sunrisers at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Friday and Delhi Daredevils on Sunday.
A perfect scenario for the rejuvenated SRH, which has 14 points from 12 games, when it takes on Virat Kohli-led team with 13 points from 12 matches.
What has been truly remarkable for the home team is the rousing form of captain David Warner, who wears the Orange Cap with 504 runs including six fifties.
In the company of southpaw Shikhar Dhawan, the Aussie has often set the tempo be it in chasing or setting targets. Not surprisingly, these two again hold the key to Sunrisers fortunes even though to the delight of head coach Tom Moody, the likes of Moises Henriques, Eoin Morgan have come good in crucial matches to keep the team in the hunt for a place in the play-offs.
With a perfect T20 cricket pitch likely to be in place, the onus is on the batsmen to rise to the occasion against the formidable Royal Challengers.
Disciplined bowlingOne of the most impressive features for the home team has been the terrific discipline the bowlers have shown, especially in crunch games. Medium-pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been one of the most difficult bowlers to face in the company of left-arm fast bowler Trent Boult in the death overs.
Bhuvneshwar’s control in the penultimate overs of the innings has made it difficult for batsmen to take chances against him. That even a rampaging David Miller of Kings XI Punjab could not get going against him the other night when he was on a roll was just other reminder of Bhuvneshwar’s control over swing, line and length even under pressure.
With Henriques proving to be a handy customer with his medium-pace, Warner has the comfort of some tight bowling in the middle overs along with left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma and leggie Karn Sharma.
The only worry has been the erratic and expensive Ishant Sharma in the three games he played so far. It will be interesting to see whether speedster Dale Steyn and medium-pacer Praveen Kumar fit into the game-plan for Friday’s big clash.
No doubt it would be an exciting battle for the Sunrisers bowlers against the big-hitting Chris Gayle, Kohli, AB de Villiers, Mandeep Singh.
Kohli’s team, with diminished hopes from that loss in the shortened game, will be more than eager to come back strongly.
With left-armers Mitchell Starc and Sreenath Aravind handling the new ball and medium-pacer Harshal Patel complementing them and leggie Yuzvendra Chahal looking good, there is variety in the bowling attack which can test the best of the batting line-ups.
By all means, it should be an exciting clash as the two teams are expected to go all out to pick the two crucial points to stay in the hunt for a place in the play-offs.
