(Cricket news) Both the sides will desperately want to perform this season after not performing to their fullest potential in the last IPL. RR had a tremendous auction this IPL and hopefully fully capitalise on the plethora of talent they have, on the other hand SRH’s Kane Williamson, who was retained ahead of the mega auction, has the charge of the Orange Army as the franchise is trusting him to get the IPL trophy back to Hyderabad.
Sunrisers will be without Rashid Khan and David Warner for the first time since 2017 but have tried to get able replacements for those two talisman in the squad. If SRH have a fit squad then their bowling lineup looks quite potent as Washington Sundar could do a holding role with the new ball or after the powerplay as the seam trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan and Umran Malik can offer 12 very different kinds of overs to the oppositions. Bhuvneshwar with his swing at the top, Natarajan with his signature yorkers at the death and Malik with his raw pace can trouble the batters. Marco Jansen, the tall, left-arm seamer, could also be an option if SRH want their lineup to be pace heavy. SRH will heavily rely on the young Indian core to perform as the likes of Rahul Tripathi and Abhishek Sharma will be open, setting a platform for Williamson and Nicholas Pooran to build upon.
Royals have perhaps the best death-bowling options in the IPL this year as Trent Boult can do a job with the older ball along with being lethal at the top with him swinging the new ball one into the right-hander. Prasidh Krishna, who over the past year has been putting brilliant performances for the Indian Cricket team will likely partner Boult in the powerplay, and hopefully build a successful partnership. Going into the tournament, RR possibly have the best two spinners in R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal and they could capitalise on it to strangle the opposition in the middle overs. They retained the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson and now have Devdutt Padikkal who is most likely to bat at No. 3. Rassie van der Dussen, who has enjoyed a purple patch for South Africa recently along with Shimron Hetmyer are probably vying for one spot in the middle order.
Pitch and weather report: The MCA Pune pitches are known for supporting batters and spinners as the game progresses but again, the trend of winning the toss and bowling first will continue as chasing teams have had an advantage here. No chance of rain is expected at the venue as the temperature would hover around 33 Degrees.
Interesting facts:
- In the IPL Sanju Samson has averaged 54.50 with a strike rate of 145.33 and Jos Buttler has averaged 43.00 with an unbelievable strike rate of 159.25) .
- Royals have the most successful IPL seamer and also spinner in the powerplays. No seamer has taken more power play wickets than Boult (21) and no spinner has taken more wickets in the phase than Ashwin (8).
- With Sunrisers retaining a similar fast-bowling unit to 2021,Padikkal has scored at a strike-rate of only 94.21 against SRH
- Boult and Krishna both last season went above 10 runs a over in the death overs
- Romario Shepherd picked up 18 wickets in 9 matches in the CPL.
Probable XI for SRH:
1 Rahul Tripathi, 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Nicholas Pooran (wk), 5 Aiden Markram, 6 Abdul Samad, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Marco Jansen/Romario Shepherd, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 T Natarajan, 11 Umran Malik
Probable XI for RR:
1 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 2 Jos Buttler, 3 Devdutt Padikkal, 4 Sanju Samson (capt, wk), 5 Shimron Hetmyer, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 James Neesham/Nathan Coulter-Nile, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Yuzvendra Chahal, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Prasidh Krishna
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