IPL 6: Shaken Royals head to Hyderabad – SRH preview

The Sunrisers Hyderabad welcome third-placed Rajasthan Royals in a crucial game to decide their possibility of qualifying for the playoffs. The hosts have been on a low after two losses in their last two games. However, their opponents haven’t particularly had the best of times this week. Rajasthan Royals have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons this week, and skipper Rahul Dravid would be keen to put it all behind him. For a recovering, recuperating Royals side mired in controversy, there would no better way to respond than to let their game do the talking in their last IPL league match. The visitors have already qualified for the next stage of the tournament and the only motivation would be to perhaps avoid playing the eliminator, although the win would be a sure morale booster after the chaos in the camp.

With little at stake for the visitors and with crisis in their dressing room, the game can swing in the favour of Sunrisers Hyderabad. Having gifted the game to Mumbai in their previous fixture and given their poor NRR, Sunrisers would need to come back strongly and win both their remaining games to make it to the qualifiers.

Conditions:

The Royal’s disappointing away form and the generally good showing of the Sunrisers here does swing the tide in favour of the hosts. The venue has been known for low scoring but close encounters. SRH have won all but one game here this season.

Head-to-Head:

The only previous time these two sides met was at the Sawai Man Singh stadium, Jaipur where Royals cruised to a victory on the back of a 98-run knock by Shane Watson after Faulkner scalped five to restrict the Sunrisers to 144.

Key Factor: Dale Steyn

In the last two games where SRH faced defeat, there was one standout bowler who still demanded respect from the batsmen while the rest of the Sunrisers bowling attack was being butchered by the opposition. Dale Steyn has been a vital cog in the Hyderabad bowling unit and his four overs can often make the difference. Besides, watching his bowling is in itself a delight unless you are the batsman. His battle against the Rajasthan top order promises to be very interesting.

Probable XI:

Shikhar Dhawan, Parthiv Patel (wk), Hanuma Vihari, Cameron White(c), Ashish Reddy, Darren Sammy, Thisara Perera, Karan Sharma, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma.