SRH vs RR: Rajasthan Royals in front of Sunrisers, will 15 year old Vaibhav Suryavanshi be able to stop Pat Cummins’ army?
Mullanpur. Sunrisers Hyderabad, which is looking very strong due to the presence of its explosive batsmen, will have to be careful of 15-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi and fast bowler Joffra Archer when they face Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) eliminator here on Wednesday. Sunrisers did not have a very good start to the tournament but regained their momentum in the second phase. The team also benefited greatly from the arrival of regular captain Pat Cummins, as it won five of its last seven matches.
Sunrisers had defeated Rajasthan Royals twice in the league stage and thus Cummins and his team will have a psychological edge in the high-pressure knockout encounter. Royals captain Riyag Parag himself admitted that his team should have qualified long ago if they waited till the last day of the league stage, but now that the team has reached there, it will be desperate to move on.
In the top order of Royals, Suryavanshi (583 runs), Yashasvi Jaiswal (397) and Dhruv Jurel (458) have scored the most runs. From Sunrisers side, three top-order batsmen Abhishek Sharma (563 runs), Travis Head (393) and Ishan Kishan (569) have made important contributions. But it is important to mention Heinrich Klaasen (606), who bats at number four, because he has batted brilliantly so far. Despite the explosive ability of the top-order batsmen of both the teams, the performances of Jaiswal and Head have not been as consistent as they would have liked.
Sunrisers are arguably the most attacking team in the tournament and so it was no surprise that Royals head coach Kumar Sangakkara was asked about his strategy to deal with the opposition’s top four batsmen. Sangakkara said, “Their team is very good and they are batting very well. He has confidence in himself that he will play freely and he has done the same throughout the tournament. We really have to keep our momentum going. You have to be disciplined and understand that they are not a team that you can restrict to 120 or 130 runs. We have to be aggressive with our line and length.
The Sri Lankan legend will hope that Archer, who took the most wickets in the powerplay, will once again deliver a match-winning performance, as he did in the do-or-die encounter against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede. Nandre Berger and Brijesh Sharma have also supported Archer well in the fast bowling department. Young leg-spinner Yash Raj Punja has emerged as the premier spinner, overtaking Ravi Bishnoi in his debut IPL season, while veteran Ravindra Jadeja needs to perform better with both bat and ball.
Suryavanshi, who bats fearlessly, will once again not hesitate to bat aggressively against bowlers like Cummins, Ishan Malinga (19) and Saqib Hussain. If this young batsman gives a good start in the powerplay then he can snatch the match from the opposition team. In the four matches played on this ground this season, the batsmen were very successful. More than 220 runs were scored in three of these matches. These also include 254 runs scored by the host team Punjab Kings.
The teams are as follows:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Smaran Ravichandran, Aniket Verma, Abhishek Sharma, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins (captain), Ishan Malinga, Jaydev Unadkat, Harshal Patel, Zeeshan Ansari, Salil Arora, Saqib Hussain, Amit Kumar, Prafulla Hinge, Crane Fultra, Liam Livingstone, Shivangi Kumar, Omkar Tarmale, Dilshan Madushanka, Gerald Coetzee, RS Ambareesh.
Rajasthan Royals: Shubham Dubey, Shimron Hetmyer, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Luan-Dre Pretorius, Ryan Parag (captain), Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Joffra Archer, Nandre Berger, Tushar Deshpande, Quena Mafaka, Sandeep Sharma, Yudhveer Singh Charak, Ravi Bishnoi, Sushant Mishra, Vignesh Puthur, Aman Rao. Perala, Brijesh Sharma, Adam Milne, Kuldeep Sen, Dasun Shanaka, Yashraj Punja, Imanjot Singh Chahal. Match start time: 7.30 pm
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