IPL 2019: Match 22, KXIP vs SRH, Preview: After Hyderabad shocker, SRH look to regain momentum

The Sunrisers have been the dominant side in its clash against KXIP.

Published - 07 Apr 2019, 21:22 IST | Updated - 07 Apr 2019, 21:22 IST

3 Min Read

Prior to their last match against Mumbai Indians (MI), the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) were one of the favourites, but they couldn’t chase down the target put in front of them. After their bowling dictated terms to Rohit Sharma’s men, the batters couldn’t weather the storm of IPL debutant Alzarri Joseph, who destroyed the Sunrisers with a six-wicket haul, bowling them out for below 100 runs.

On a rare instance, the likes of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner failed and the onus was on the middle order to shoulder the team over the line. However, their middle-order fell like a pack of cards. Their upcoming is against the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the PCA Stadium in Mohali. SRH have mostly dominated the Punjab-based franchise, having won 75 per cent of their games since 2013.

KXIP have won three matches, but are precariously placed in the bottom half of the points table. Their Net Run Rate (NRR) is also not the greatest and it needs to be taken care of. The team, captained by Ravi Ashwin, can take heart from the fact that it defeated SRH last time around courtesy of a superlative century from Chris Gayle, who didn’t die wondering on an excellent batting deck in Mohali.

Team Combination

Kings XI Punjab

Punjab may drop Mohammed Shami and give Ankit Rajpoot an opportunity. Chris Gayle and KL Rahul are the opening batsmen with Mayank Agarwal at number three. The onus would be on Sarfaraz Khan and David Miller in the middle order. Mandeep Singh is the other picture. In the bowling department, Punjab have the likes of Ravi Ashwin, Murugan Ashwin, Andrew Tye and Sam Curran.

Probable XI

KL Rahul (wk), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, David Miller, Mandeep Singh, Sam Curran, Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Murugan Ashwin, Andrew Tye, Mohammed Shami/Ankit Rajpoot

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Deepak Hooda hasn’t done anything of sorts and Abhishek Sharma may play in place of him. He will play in the middle-order along with the likes of Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan. David Warner and Jonny Bairstow are the opening batsmen with Vijay Shankar at number three. Nabi and Rashid are no mugs with the bat. Both are also needed to bowl along with the likes of Sandeep, Kaul and Bhuvneshwar.

Probable XI

David Warner, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey, Abhishek Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar (c), Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul

Kings XI Punjab win the toss, opt to field

IPL-2019-PLAYING-XI-KXIPvSRH

Focus will be on

Chris Gayle- Kings XI Punjab

These days the hulk-like Jamaican doesn’t go hammer and tongs from the word go. Rather, he takes his time, gets used to the conditions and then presses the accelerator. In this IPL, he has more or less been amongst the runs. Only in the previous contest against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), he got out for a single-digit score. SRH needs to be wary of the 39-year-old experienced cricketer.

David Warner- Sunrisers Hyderabad

Warner made his comeback to the IPL with three masterful knocks and also bagged the Orange Cap for the leading run-scorer. However, he couldn’t quite step up in the last two games, having got out for 10 and 15 respectively. The New South Wales-born southpaw has a decent record against Punjab and the batter would be looking to churn out another substantial knock.