Vivo IPL 2017: Match 21: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Delhi Daredevils
Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad (Capacity: 65,000)
Wednesday, 19th April
8:00pm IST
So here we are. 20 games in, we’ve reached the mid-tournament of the IPL. The pitches are slowing down, the games are getting just a tad repetitive and the games matter just that little bit less. The Sunrisers and the Daredevils won’t think of it that way, though and the two teams, fairly similar in their balances, will battle it out for the first time this tournament in what is expected to be a low scoring thriller.
Team Form:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: W (KXIP), L (KKR), L (MI),
Delhi Daredevils: L (KKR), W (KXIP), W (RPS)
Team News:
The Sunrisers Hyderabad won their last game by the skin of their teeth on a slow and low Hyderabad surface, fielding a somewhat second string bowling attack. They did not look as assured as they would have liked to be, as Manan Vohra’s singlehanded effort almost took the game away from the hosts. They would look to beef up their bowling unit, with replacing Siddharth Kaul and Barinder Sran with Mustafizur Rahman and Ashish Nehra. Moises Henriques might be replaced by New Zealand batting star and captain Kane Williamson, who is far better playing the role of the accumulator than Moises Henriques. Mohammad Nabi might make way for Bipul Sharma or Vijay Shankar to keep the number of overseas players in the balance. The team looks solid, but a couple of early wickets (particularly that of David Warner), will rock them badly. If he plays, Mustafizur Rahman will be key to winning the game, and so will Rashid Khan.
The Daredevils lost their last game to the Knight Riders in a game they should never have lost. Both their bowling and batting looks solid, but neither has players with the experience (save Zaheer Khan) to shut the opposition out. They’re definitely the underdogs going into the game, and they will hope that a strong performance from their young batting line-up will be able to chase the small total the Sunrisers put up, or conversely be able to put up a score of more than 160, which is a match winning total on a slow wicket. Mishra and Nadeem will be essential, and skewed slogs and stumpings off the spinners will be the primary modes of dismissals for the Sunrisers.
Pitch and Weather Report:
The weather will be hot, as it usually is in Hyderabad, and there’s no real chance of rain. The pitch will be slow and two paced, and scores above 150 will be tough to chase. Expect a low scoring thriller similar to the one against the Kings XI Punjab. The Indian batting contingent will be key, and both teams will want their Indian batsmen to use their familiarity of slow and low conditions to score big runs on a tough surface.
Teams (probable):
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1. David Warner 2. Shikhar Dhawan 3. Kane Williamson 4. Yuvraj Singh 5. Deepak Hooda 6. Naman Ojha 7. Bipul Sharma 8. Rashid Khan 9. Bhuvneshwar Kumar 10. Ashish Nehra 11. Mustafizur Rahman
Delhi Daredevils: 1. Sanju Samson 2. Sam Billings 3. Rishabh Pant 4. Shreyas Iyer 5. Karun Nair 6. Corey Anderson 7. Chris Morris 8. Pat Cummins 9. Amit Mishra 10. Zaheer Khan 11. Shahbaz Nadeem
Match Prediction:
The Delhi Daredevils’ batsmen are expected to find these conditions more suited to their style of play than the Sunrisers’. Pat Cummins’ performances on slow test wickets could indicate a strong showing from him as well. The Sunrisers are overly dependant on David Warner and Bhuvneshwar Kumar and this could be their undoing.
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Vedant Jain is a contributor at CricMetric. For any queries or information, email vedantja@usc.edu