Match 19: Kings XI Punjab vs Sunrisers Hyderabad at Delhi, Apr 17, 2017
Hyderabad Stadium ( Capacity 50,000)
Monday, 17th April
20:00 hrs IST
Back-to-back losses denting their confidence, defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) would look to put their campaign back on track. With two Australians leading their respective sides in this upcoming clash, the battle of David Warner v Glenn Maxwell promises to be an exciting encounter. It’s been a steady start to 2017 for Hyderabad who possess some real firepower in their line-up, but they haven’t fully-clicked as a unit yet with some individual brilliance contributing to a couple wins early, only to be quickly-forgotten after consecutive losses to Mumbai and Kolkata.
Team News:
David Warner’s strong presence at the crease for the Sunrisers is the key to the teams success, the rest of the team thrives off Warner’s positivity to score and tend to follow in his footsteps after he’s put some runs on the board in the first five overs. Australian teammate Moises Henriques has scored two fifties in his three matches, while Yuvraj Singh hasn’t been able to recapture that dominance with the bat since Hyderabad’s first game. The bowling attack lacks some depth, but thanks to Bhuvneshwar Kumar who has been the Sunrisers most consistent performers with 10 wickets in his four games, has been able to keep his team in the game regardless of the situation. Moises Henriques and Ben Cutting have both proven their worth with the bat in hand, but their bowling has been expensive with the pair having very-little effect in the wickets column and conceding in excess of ten runs an over.
Kings XI Punjab find themselves in the same position having lost their last two games. After a dominant start to IPL 10, it appears that Punjab have crawled back into their shells with the likes of Hashim Amla, Glenn Maxwell and David Miller losing that spark in their batting that saw them comfortably win the first two games of the tournament. Eoin Morgan who is a damaging prospect in this format and has played some match-winning knocks in the past, the most recent one of them being for the Sydney Thunder in the BBL, would be important to look at. Alike Hyderabad, the Kings XI’s bowing department is substantially weaker compared to other teams in the competition, relying on Varun Aaron and Axar Patel who aren’t genuine wicket takers in this format to lead the attack.
Ideal Playing XI
Kings XI Punjab: Vohra, Amla, Saha, Morgan, Maxwell (c), Miller, Axar, Mohit, Sandeep, Cariappa, Natarajan.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Warner (c), Dhawan, Henriques, Yuvraj, Hooda, Ojha (wk), Bipul, Rashid, Bhuvneshwar, Nehra, Mustafizur.
Match prediction: Given the similarity in the teams and their challenges, the game will be a close one. The home advantage should help SRH slightly.