Today Sunrisers bank on big-hitters in Qualifier 2 at Chepauk
CHENNAI: This is the point of no return. After a roller-coaster ride over the last two months, Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will face off at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Friday night for a place in the IPL final against Kolkata Knight Riders.
This means that there will be no mad scramble for tickets as is usually associated with an IPL match in Chennai, but this does not mean supporters won’t arrive. As SRH have some connection to southern India, they already have some fan base here while Ravichandran Ashwin being a Chennai boy playing for the Royals could also attract many people to support them. RR were one run short of winning which was probably one of the best matches in this season’s IPL between these sides and which started a three-week winless streak for Steve Smith’s team. That run came to an end on Wednesday with a morale boosting triumph over Royal Challengers Bengaluru by RR at Ahmedabad.
If Sanju Samson can keep his form from that victory up then surely SRH would need to bounce back after suffering their defeat to KKR at Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday. This feature assesses several factors that may prove decisive…
How RR handles with Travi-Shek
Head and Abhishek Sharma have been a force to reckon with in this IPL. In most cases, the duo have disarmed their rivals right in the powerplay through their fearless approach. During the last two games however, Head was dismissed for 0 as left-arm swing bowlers Mitchell Starc and Arshdeep Singh swung balls right into him.
Samson would be sure to release Kiwi left-armer Trent Boult upon Head who is such a destructive force. If Royals win this match-up, they will definitely have the upper-hand and then they will bank on the experience of their spinners-R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal-to deal with the Abhishek threat on a pitch which should have something for the spinners.
Yuzi-Ashwin factor
The Yuzvendra Chahal-Ravichandran Ashwin partnership is undoubtedly the best bowling combo of this IPL. While Yuzi’s excellent performance in the T20 World Cup trials secured him a place in the Indian team, Ashwin has become one of the modern greats of the game.
However, Ashwin comes into his own with his nice drift that can take the ball away from left-handers like Heinrich Klaasen in powerplay, Yuzi though has to step up against such players as Heinrich Klaasen. The battle between Yuzi and Klaasen should be one of the highlights during this match since Klaasen is considered as one of the most dangerous hitters of spin in middle-overs.
SUNRISERS’ 5TH BOWLER PROBLEM
In the past two games, four front line bowlers have been picked by Sunrisers with Shahbaz Ahmed and Nitish Reddy, the medium pacers, taking turns as the fifth bowling option. It is diametrically opposite to RR’s plan that depends on five quality bowlers for its success.
It will be interesting to see if this approach will remain constant in this age of ‘impact sub’ in such a decisive contest. In case they do that, it is obvious RR batsmen will wait for these 4 overs to try and snatch away victory from Pat Cummins boys.
