Sunrisers Hyderabad has given enough proof of its capability in the Champions League T20 tournament.
The fourth-place finish in the IPL-6 in the first year itself showed the motivational powers of coach Tom Moody. Coming through the qualifiers, Sunrisers — led by Shikhar Dhawan — has been one of the dangerous floaters in this tournament.
On Thursday, Sunrisers will take on one of the proven T20 sides, Chennai Super Kings, in a Group ‘B’ encounter.
Having registered big wins in the home-and-away games in the IPL-6, CSK will start as favourite.
The side’s belligerent display against Titans of South Africa showed the team has the capability to reach the business end of the tournament.
But, Sunrisers’ has the talent to trouble CSK. Its openers, Dhawan and Parthiv Patel, have been performing well. With Jean-Paul Duminy, Thisara Perera and Darren Sammy to follow, the batting line-up can pose threat to any bowling side in the world.
The bowling department is in the safe hands of ever-reliable Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma, two leg-spinners Amit Mishra and Karan Sharma. Ashish Reddy and Perera can chip in with couple of overs.
On the other hand, CSK is a good all-round side. It has able batsmen in Michael Hussey, Suresh Raina, S. Badrinath and M.S. Dhoni himself to take care of the batting.
Dwayne Bravo, an outstanding all-rounder, has been performing well.
The only worrying factor is the poor form of Ravindra Jadeja, who was belted around in the last game.
Ideally, CSK would want both Jadeja and Murali Vijay to hit form as early as possible.
