Hyderabad As they play Punjab Kings in their last league game of the season here on Sunday, Sunrisers Hyderabad, riding high after reaching their first playoff appearance in three years, will be aiming for a second-place finish in the IPL points table.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, who had placed last in the previous three IPL seasons, came out swinging this year, showcasing their ultra-aggressive batting style and superb bowling to position themselves as serious championship contenders.
A few nights ago, when their match against the Gujarat Titans at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in this city washed out, the Pat Cummins-led team advanced to the last four. SRH, who have 15 points from 13 games and are now ranked third, may advance to a maximum of 17 points if they defeat PBKS on Sunday.
But, the Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals will pass SRH to claim second place with 18 points if they defeat the league’s top team, Kolkata Knight Riders, in their final league game.
In their previous six games, the third-place Sunrisers have only won two, lost three, and had one washout. This is a somewhat unfortunate streak. But in their most recent game, which they had finished, SRH had defeated Lucknow Super Giants by 10 wickets, thanks to the outstanding work of their opening duo of Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head.
With just Virat Kohli and Ruturaj Gaikwad standing in his way, Head is vying for the Orange Cap with 533 runs in 11 games and the top batting strike rate of 201.89.
Since they appear to be depending a lot on their openers, it is critical for SRH that other batters establish consistency as well.
Heinrich Klaasen, the wicketkeeper-battler, has not been very consistent in the past few games, while Nitish Kumar Reddy has improved over that time. SRH will be eager to solve the batting difficulties.
If Cummins’ team finishes third, SRH will prefer to keep pushing their bowlers to keep them ready for the knockout round, when they might play either Chennai Super Kings or Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Eliminator.
It will be PBKS’s chance to exit on a strong note following their failure to get to the last four once more.
England players have left PBKS, including stand-in captain Sam Curran, who was instrumental in the team’s five-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals.
Punjab Kings’ last game of the season will be led by India wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma, since Curran is heading home for national service. Jitesh may use it as a chance to impress the teams ahead of the IPL auction that takes place the following year.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen , Aiden Markram, Abdul Samad, Nitish Reddy, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins , Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik, Anmolpreet Singh, Glenn Phillips , Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Upendra Yadav , Jhathavedh Subramanyan, Sanvir Singh, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen, Akash Maharaj Singh, Mayank Agarwal.
Punjab Kings: Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh , Jitesh Sharma , Sikandar Raza, Rishi Dhawan, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Shivam Singh, Harshal Patel, Ashutosh Sharma, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Shashank Singh, Tanay Thyagarajan, Prince Choudhary, Rilee Rossouw.
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