The wheel of fortune spins quite fast in the Indian Premier League. Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals, who meet in Qualifier 2 at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here, will attest to this.
SRH went into Tuesday’s Qualifier 1 on the back of authoritative victories over Lucknow Super Giants and Punjab Kings, only for table-topper Kolkata Knight Riders to reduce it to rubble.
RR went into Wednesday’s Eliminator following a five-game winless run that included four defeats, but managed to edge out the high-flying Royal Challengers Bengaluru by four wickets
Shifts in momentum
Friday’s clash will thus pit two sides that have seen shifts in momentum, and each side will be hoping that Lady Fortuna sheds her capricious whims and smiles only in its direction.
SRH leader Pat Cummins explained his team’s effort against KKR as “bit off the pace” and seemed glad that it had not come in a must-win game. After all, one of the perks of finishing in the top-two is that you get two bites at the cherry.
SRH will hope that the second bite too doesn’t taste as bitter. For that, the top-order — led by the marauder-in-chief Travis Head and little tornado Abhishek Sharma that has helped amass 100-plus PowerPlay runs twice — has to recover after being stung by Mitchell Starc.
It now has the arduous task of countering another left-arm quick in Kiwi Trent Boult, whose swing and guile pegged RCB back in the PowerPlay. The world-class duo of R. Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal — an asset SRH doesn’t possess — will present a spin challenge like no other and there is also the death-overs craftiness of Avesh Khan to deal with.
Ashwin, in fact, turned in a Player-of-the-Match performance against RCB (4-0-19-2) and Chepauk is his home turf, the spin-friendly conditions of which he knows like the back of his hand.
RR will also take heart from Shimron Hetmyer’s return and his crucial role — alongside compatriot Rovman Powell — in handling a nervous chase versus RCB.
Tom Kohler-Cadmore, who has replaced fellow Englishman Jos Buttler in the XI, provided a glimpse of his bonafide T20 credentials in the last match. If he comes good on the grandest of stages, RR will be extremely pleased.
With the conditions set to be hot and humid, and dew expected to arrive during the second innings, teams would ideally prefer chasing. But five of SRH’s eight wins have come batting first. It floundered in its last attempt to set a target. Will it back its strength or go with accepted wisdom?
Squads
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aiden Markram, Abdul Samad, Nitish Reddy, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins (c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan, Mayank Markande, Umran Malik, Anmolpreet Singh, Glenn Phillips (wk), Rahul Tripathi, Washington Sundar, Upendra Yadav (wk), Jhathavedh Subramanyan, Sanvir Singh, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen, Akash Maharaj Singh and Mayank Agarwal.
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (c & wk), Abid Mushtaq, Avesh Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Donovan Ferreira, Kuldeep Sen, Kunal Singh Rathore, Nandre Burger, Navdeep Saini, Ravichandran Ashwin, Riyan Parag, Sandeep Sharma, Shimron Hetmyer, Shubham Dubey, Rovman Powell, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Trent Boult, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Yuzvendra Chahal and Tanush Kotian.
Match starts: 7.30 p.m. (IST)
