Venue: ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium | Date & Time: 10 May at 1830 (GST)
BIG PICTURE
The Rising Pune Supergiants are already in the do-or-die zone. Rather, they are at a point where even winning every single match from now on will not guarantee qualification for the eliminator. And to make matters worse for the MS Dhoni-led team, they are up against the might of David Warner and his bowling attack. Pune’s abysmal record of three wins in ten games can be attributed to a couple of different factors: injury to every single one of their overseas starters, RCB-level shallowness in their bowling reserves, and the curious case of Ravi Ashwin.
SRH, au contraire, have a lot going in their favour. They are coming into the fixture fresh from handing the defending champions a thrashing of the highest-order. By a mile, they have the best fast bowling attack, with Trent Boult still warming the bench. Warner has matched Virat Kohli in terms of consistency: with the little that Warner lacks in his ability to ‘finish’ games, he more than compensates for in sheer destructiveness and intimidation. The Australian skipper – the only non-Indian captain left in the tournament – has displayed tactical acumen well worth the praise.
Warner aside, two things that made the Hyderabad team one of the most formidable outfits have been Shikhar Dhawan’s return to form and their stupendous bowling. Dhawan, despite having a lean patch during the World T20, has come back into runs. His solidity at the top has provided a great foil to Warner’s aggression. In the game against the Mumbai Indians, he displayed his ability to up the ante as well.
The other team, Pune, has been all over the place, relatively speaking. Though Ajinkya Rahane has shown consistency with the bat, the rate at which his runs come has been a cause of concern. If he were primarily the anchor, his strike-rate doesn’t seem too poor. However, in the context of a team that lacks quality hitters, his runs have come at a sub-par rate. Saurabh Tiwary, too, has gotten some runs, but he’s no longer the buccaneering enforcer he was for Mumbai in 2010. Dhoni’s form has been rather shoddy and George Bailey remains untested. The bowling, too, has particularly lacked sting with Ashok Dinda and Thisara Perera blowing hot and cold. While Scott Boland has been solid, he hasn’t matched the impact of the likes of Lasith Malinga or Sunil Narine– the kind that can turn a season around.
WATCH OUT FOR
Ravichandran Ashwin: Dhoni’s usage (rather, the lack of) of the spinner has been baffling. Once the go-to man in MS’ arsenal, Ashwin has hardly got to bowl his quota of late. Ashwin got one solitary over in the last match against RCB and when RPSG decided to get Ashwin over Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo, et al, they had the Ashwin of the old in their mind: the Ashwin who could bowl a quick maiden in the powerplay, snap partnerships in the middle overs, and give away nothing at death. He’s hardly had an opportunity to do any of this lately.
KEY BATTLES
The Fizz vs MS Dhoni: Injuries to KP and Steven Smith mean an additional responsibility on Dhoni to be the enforcer of the Pune batting line-up. His opponent in this match will be Mustafizur Rahman, who has been almost impossible to slog in the death overs. If the Bangladeshi youngster keeps up his good form, we can potentially see another sub-par total from RSPG and potentially the first team to definitely exit from the tournament in IPL 2016.
Ashok Dinda vs David Warner: The relatively shallow fast-bowling reserves of the RPSG means that Dinda leads the bowling attack. While Dinda’s back-of-the-length bowling can potentially wilt inexperienced players, a certain batsman from Australia finds joy in thwacking short-pitched stuff on the back-foot. Warner will certainly look to dig into Dinda early in the match and create an early advantage for Hyderabad. This, however, also means an increased opportunity to take Warner’s wicket. With their relatively weak middle and lower order, an early setback in the form of Warner could make it a tough ask for the Hyderabad batters.
Long off you mean. https://t.co/ZZFMBK6zsr
— David Warner (@davidwarner31) May 9, 2016
EXPECTED XIs
There’s a little reason why SRH will want to change this combination. Potentially Aditya Tare might come in for Naman Ojha, but apart from that it seems that they’ll retain their winning combination.
David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson, Yuvraj Singh, Deepak Hooda, Naman Ojha / Aditya Tare (wk), Moises Henriques, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Barinder Sran, Ashish Nehra, Mustafizur Rahman
Pune don’t exactly have much room to wiggle with most of their overseas players out with injury. It will be interesting though whether they go with Adam Zampa or Scott Boland, given Zampa’s good debut and the lack of fast bowlers.
Ajinkya Rahane, Usman Khwaja, Saurabh Tiwary, MS Dhoni (wk), George Bailey, Thisara Parera, Rajat Bhatia, Ravichandran Ashwin, Adam Zampa / Scott Boland, Ashok Dinda, RP Singh
STRAIGHT FROM TWITTER
Check out how Nehra Ji got the special MOM cake facial at the team's post match celebration. #SRH #OrangeArmyhttps://t.co/5ZVuS63lYD
— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) May 9, 2016
