It is time for the teams to switch gears and go flat out to ensure a slot in the play-offs as IPL-7 moves towards its decisive phase.
So when Sunrisers Hyderabad, after consecutive defeats at home, takes on former champion Kolkata Knight Riders here on Sunday, it will be an important battle for both contestants.
With eight points from 10 games, it is a must-win game for SRH to keep its hopes alive. The biggest concern for it is the fact that Dale Steyn has been treated with disdain by some, including A.B. de Villiers (RCB) and George Bailey (KXIP).
KKR has the dangerous Robin Uthappa and his face-off with Steyn could set the course of the match.
Steyn has to regain his striking prowess in the death overs. He went for 51 runs in four overs the other night when King’s XI Punjab chased down a target of 205 with ease. The other problem for SRH is that there is no fast bowler who can complement Steyn. Irfan Pathan has been disappointing.
Rest a leggie?Leg-spinners Amit Mishra and Karn Sharma, who started off well, have been below par in the middle overs.
This might, perhaps, force the SRH think-tank to drop one of them and include an all- rounder like Ashish Reddy or Parveez Rasool or bring in young left-armer Chama Milind if the pitch merits such a move.
However, in batting, SRH has reason to be pleased since Naman Ojha was a revelation in the last game — not just in terms of scoring, but the manner in which he hit those clean sixes. Openers Shikhar Dhawan and Aaron Finch have to fire for batsmen like David Warner and Ojha to go for their strokes without wasting time.
On the other hand, for KKR, which has 10 points from 10 games, batting fortunes revolve around captain Gautam Gambhir, Uthappa and the big-hitting Manish Pandey. Jacques Kallis has not lived up to expectations so far. Yusuf Pathan seems to have forgotten the art of scoring in a T20 game and has just 79 runs from nine games.
In bowling, Sunil Narine has been the leader again with 14 wickets, with leggie Piyush Chawla supporting him well. But KKR needs quicks Umesh Yadav and Morne Morkel to take wickets for the slow bowlers to be more effective.
