Hyderabad. In this season of the Indian Premier League, the team which had made a record of big scores against the opposing team with its explosive batting, has suddenly collapsed. The batsmen have disappointed in the last few matches. Recovering from the poor performance of its batsmen, Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to strengthen its claim for the playoffs by registering a win in the IPL match against Lucknow Super Giants on Wednesday.
Both teams have 12 points in 11 matches. Sunrisers’ net run rate (minus 0.065) is better than Lucknow (minus 0.371). Kolkata Knight Riders (16), Rajasthan Royals (16) and Chennai Super Kings (12) are above him in the points table. Whoever wins between Sunrisers and Lucknow will be one step ahead in the race for the playoffs. There is no dearth of talent in the team captained by Pat Cummins but its winning campaign has come to a halt in the last few matches. Sunrisers have faced defeat in three out of the last four matches because their attacking batsmen have failed.
In the last match against Mumbai Indians, they lost by seven wickets due to not making a big score. Except Travis Head, the rest of the batsmen have been in poor form in the last few matches. Young Abhishek Sharma has not been able to go beyond 30 runs in the last four matches. Sunrisers head coach Daniel Vettori admitted that every time the responsibility cannot be left only to the openers, the middle order will also have to take charge.
Heinrich Klaasen has failed to play well consistently and Nitish Reddy has also performed well in patches. T Natarajan has bowled well while experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar has also found his rhythm. On the other hand, Lucknow Super Giants had a disappointing performance against Kolkata at the Ekana Stadium and were out for 137 runs after conceding more than 200 runs for the first time.
Captain KL Rahul failed while Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran also could not play big innings. Ayush Badoni’s performance in this IPL has been average and he would like to prove his usefulness. In bowling, fast bowler Mayank Yadav is out of IPL while left arm fast bowler Mohsin Khan is also injured. The onus will be on Afghanistan’s fast bowler Naveenul Haq, young Yash Thakur, Stoinis and spinners Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi.
Tags: IPL 2024, Lucknow Super Giants, srh, Sunrisers Hyderabad
FIRST PUBLISHED: May 7, 2024, 18:15 IST