The Sunrisers Hyderabad will be looking to resurrect their topsy-turvy campaign on home soil when they take on the Lucknow Super Giants even as chances of precipitation looms large on the 57th league match of IPL 2024.
As the IPL 2024 heads into its final leg, Kolkata Knight Riders (16 points) and Rajasthan Royals (16) are the only teams who look to be sitting with any degree of comfort. The other two spots are still up for grabs, with Chennai Super Kings (12), Sunrisers Hyderabad (12) and Lucknow Super Giants (12) among the frontrunners to claim them. Delhi Capitals (10) could also find themselves in the fray if they manage to win the remaining three games.
As such, Wednesday’s clash between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Lucknow Super Giants could be a potential shootout with the winner gaining a significant edge in the race to the playoffs. However, with CSK boasting of a superior net run rate of 0.700 at this point, both SRH (-0.065) and LSG (-0.371) will have one eye on improving their NRR in case if the teams end on same points after completion of the league stages.
And quite expectedly, both sides have endured a similar graph in terms of performances winning six of their 11 matches so far. And both sides head into Wednesday’s game on the back of loses in their respective previous matches.
Sunrisers Hyderabad are coming off a 7-wicket loss to Mumbai Indians on Monday night, their third loss in four games, primarily because their destructive batting line-up hasn’t fired as a unit. Against MI, the team struggled to put up a sizeable total, which has been their strongest point this season.
Barring Travis Head, who has been their stand out performer this season, the other batters have faced a recent slump. Head’s opening partner Abhishek Sharma has managed to score past 30 just once in the last four games while the flamboyant Heinrich Klaasen has also been unable to strike the ball consistently and Nitish Reddy too has been patchy.
Instead their bowling unit has been an improved lot with skipper Pat Cummins leading the way, along with T. Natarajan’s consistency at the death. The seasoned Bhuvneshwar Kumar also seems to have regained his touch after his incisive spell helped SRH eke out a one-run win against Rajasthan Royals.
LSG, on the other hand, are also coming into the game on the back of a humiliating 98-run loss to Kolkata Knight Riders, when they not only conceded the first-ever 200 plus score at the Ekana Stadium but also folded their innings at 137.
While Saturday’s match turned out a collective failure of the side, the onus will now be again on skipper KL Rahul to marshal his troops to get the 5th-ranked side out of the mid-table logjam. For that, Rahul will be expected to make amends in his batting, with a slightly more aggressive intent. His new opening partner Arshin Kulkarni has failed to deliver in his first two games, and it remains to be seen whether the LSG management goes back to their tested pair of Rahul and seasoned South African Quinton de Kock.
The middle order comprising the likes of Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran and Deepak Hooda will be expected to add meat to their totals, something which they failed against KKR. Ayush Badoni has had a subdued run in this IPL and he would be keen to shrug off the rustiness.
More than their batting, LSG’s struggles with the ball have compounded after the loss of their express pacer Mayank Yadav, who has been ruled out of the IPL and left-arm pacer Mohsin Khan also picked up an injury. Thus the onus will be on Afghan quick Naveen-ul-Haq, young Yash Thakur, Stoinis and spinners Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi to deliver.