It's SRH power-hitters vs RR spin

May 24, 2024 19:10

Sanju Samson has won the toss and invited SunRisers to bat in Qualifier 2 of the IPL, in Chennai, on Friday.

Rajasthan Royals will go unchanged into this match while SRH have two changes with Unadkat and Markram coming back in the squad.

Playing XIs:

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal

SunRisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Reddy, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Abdul Samad, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan

Impact Subs

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Umran Malik, Sanvir Singh, Glenn Phillips, Mayank Markande, Shahbaz Ahmed

Rajasthan Royals: Shimron Hetmyer, Nandre Burger, Shubham Dubey, Donovan Ferreira, Kuldeep Sen

IPL's best power-hitters Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma will face a very different challenge in wily spin twins Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin when Sunrisers Hyderabad take on Rajasthan Royals in a high-octane second Qualifier in Chennai on Friday.

'Travishek' as the duo is affectionately called by the fans have taken power-hitting to a new level. Head (533 runs at 199.62) and Abhishek (470 at 207.04) have hit 72 sixes apart from 96 boundaries between them.

But playing on an Uppal shirtfront that resembled a national highway or at the Kotla or Wankhede is completely from playing at the Chepauk where the strip will be sticky in nature.

The ball stops and stroke-makers do have a tough time when it comes to hitting through the line.

Ashwin, who has played all his cricket at this ground, knows the strip like the back of his hand and his form has improved towards the back-end of the tournament.

SRH's problems lie in not having two quality spinners. Mayank Markande is mediocre at best and Shahbaz Ahmed's primary skill is willow-wielding, not bowling slow left-arm orthodox tweakers.

As for RR, the side finally ended its five-game winless streak, thanks to its all-round show against RCB.

In batting, the top-order displayed some positive signs, especially Yashasvi Jaiswal, and he would love to continue the form ahead of the T20 World Cup in the Americas next month.

However, skipper Sanju Samson will have to do better, given that he hasn't crossed the 20-run mark in the last three contests.

In the middle order, Dhruv Jurel will be under pressure, having failed to enter the double digits in his last two outings.

The side would also be relying on its Caribbean game-changers Shimron Hetmyer and West Indies T20 skipper Rovman Powell for some power-hitting that they displayed against RCB.

Riyan Parag, who has displayed some serious form this term, is also one of their bankable batters.

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