HYDERABAD: Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to forget their recent seven-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians and boost their playoff chances against an equally desperate Lucknow Super Giants at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.
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Sunrisers and Super Giants have 12 points each after 11 matches and the former are fourth owing to a better net run-rate. However, a loss can quickly change the equation, which the hosts are well aware of.
They will count on home conditions to pocket two crucial two points as the tournament heads into its final leg.
Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals top the standings with 16 points each and have virtually sealed the playoffs berths. The fight for the remaining two spots is heating up with Chennai Super Kings (12) and Delhi Capitals (12) also in contention.
Sunrisers' batting came a cropper against five-time champions Mumbai, posting a below-par 173/8. Barring Travis Head (48), none of the batters contributed substantially. If not for captain Cummins' unbeaten 35, they would have ended up with a much less total. Abhishek Sharma has been quiet in his last two outings with 12 and 15, which has affected their scoring in the powerplay.
Mayank Agarwal's inclusion failed to make an impact while Nitish Kumar, Heinrich Klaasen and Abdul Samad Klaasen failed to come good. Much was expected from Klaasen after the way he started the season with three half-centuries, but in the last five innings he has the scores of 2, 42*, 20, 7, 15. Their bowling, Cummins (13) and T Natarajan (15) have been shouldering the responsibilities well along with Bhuvneshwar.
Meanwhile, Super Giants suffered a massive 98-run loss to table toppers Kolkata Knight Riders in previous outing and skipper
KL Rahul
expects his team to up their game against SRH.
Rahul (431) has been doing the bulk of the scoring while Marcus Stoinis (352) and Nicholas Pooran (315) are lending a good hand. But they capitulated for 137 runs against KKR, exposing their vulnerability.
Quinton de Kock
has been below par while batters Ayush Badoni (152) and Deepak Hooda (134) haven't come up with any notable contribution yet. The performance of the bowling unit has been a major concern. While their pace unit, consisting Yash Thakur (11 wickets), Naveen-ul-Haq (10) and Mohsin Khan (9), has been leaking runs aplenty, the spinners - Ravi Bishnoi (7) and Krunal Pandya (5) - have had a poor run.
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