Sunrisers Hyderabad would look to complete the unfinished business and seal their place in the IPL Playoffs when they clash with laggards Royal Challengers Bangalore, on Saturday.
The defeat against Mumbai Indians via Super Over must be hurting but they need to shrug it off and add two points to take their tally to 14, good enough to stay in the top-4.
Despite their defeat against Mumbai on Thursday night, Hyderabad’s net run rate is +0.653, which is superior to others in contention for the Playoffs.
Even if Hyderabad lose their last match, they can still reach the playoffs if Kolkata Knight Riders don’t win more their last match.
In the absence of their batting mainstay David Warner, young Manish Pandey (71 off 47 balls) shouldered the responsibility pretty well in the last match against Mumbai as he pushed the match into the super over after he carted Hardik Pandya for a last-ball six to bring the scores level.
Mumbai Indians had scored 162 for five in the allotted 20 overs. Needing nine to win in the super over, Pandya and Kieron Pollard took the side home with three balls to spare. Hyderabad had managed a score of 8 for 2 with Jasprit Bumrah bagging the wickets of Pandey and Mohammed Nabi.
Captain Kane Williamson, all-rounder Vijay Shankar and comeback man Wriddhiman Saha will look to score in the key match.
Hyderabad bowlers have performed well in patches and need to get their act together against Bangalore’s master blasters AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli. The visitors boast of a multi-pronged attack in which Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan has been the standout performer.
Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed and experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar, along with the Afghan spin twins Rashid and Mohammed Nabi add sting to the Hyderabad attack.
Bangalore will be playing for pride after their hopes of entering the playoffs went up in smoke with their match against Rajasthan Royals abandoned due to rain.
The Teams (From):
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (C), Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Hooda, Manish Pandey, T Natarajan, Ricky Bhui, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Shreevats Goswami, Khaleel Ahmed, Yusuf Pathan, Billy Stanlake, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Shakib Al Hasan, Wriddhiman Saha, Martin Guptill, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma and Shahbaz Nadeem.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (capt), Parthiv Patel, AB de Villiers, Colin de Grandhomme, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Moeen Ali, Shimron Hetmyer, Dale Steyn, Shivam Dube, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Devdutt Padikkal, Himmat Singh, Milind Kumar, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Heinrich Klaasen, Pawan Negi, Washington Sundar, Akshdeep Nath, Prayas Ray Barman, Kulwant Khejroliya and Tim Southee.
