After winning only four and losing seven games out of 11, Sunrisers Hyderabad is seventh on the table and still has a chance to make it to the playoffs. SRH will be looking to turn their fortune as they take on Delhi Capitals who have won seven and lost four out of 11 games but are second on the points table.
With a win tonight, David Warner and co will still be in contention for the fourth spot or else will join Chennai Super Kings as the second team to be knocked out of the tournament. SRH faces a difficult road ahead with their remaining matches against the top three teams — Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians. SRH can take inspiration from Kings XI Punjab who beat all three teams one after the other and jumped from being last on the table to fourth. Even if SRH wins all remaining matches, it still doesn’t guarantee them a place in the top four.
After a horrendous batting collapse against KXIP in their last game, chasing just 127 in 20 overs, SRH’s batsmen will have to step up as they are facing a better bowling attack in the form of Kagiso Rabada, R Ashwin and Co. However, the last time these two sides faced, SRH beat DC by 15 runs with Rashid Khan picking up three wickets in his four overs and giving away just 14 runs but the difference was the presence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the powerplay and the death overs. However, SRH’s bowling has been doing well. Their batsmen need to step up their game.
Delhi will be more confident than SRH but also have come off a defeat going into this clash. DC’s bowlers were smashed to all parts of the ground by KKR batsmen. Their batting also collapsed as Varun Chakravarthy spun a web around their middle order, becoming the first bowler to pick five wickets in this season of the IPL. SRH will be hoping Rashid Khan to do the same.
The pitches in Dubai have slowed down considerably both teams would be inclined to bat first and put runs on the board.
