In the 25th match of the 11th season of Indian Premier League (IPL) on Thursday, R Ashwin-led Kings XI Punjab and Kane Williamson-led SunRisers Hyderabad will try to outdo each other at the Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad.
So far, Punjab has won five matches and lost one, and is at the second spot on the IPL table just behind Chennai Super Kings. On the other hand, Kane Williamson’s side is at the third spot on the IPL table, with four wins and two losses.
Punjab openers Lokesh Rahul and Chris Gayle have been a major reason behind their success. While Rahul has accumulated 236 runs from six games, the Caribbean self-proclaimed “Universe Boss” has amassed 229 runs from just three matches.
Gayle, however, missed the previous match against Delhi Daredevils due to fitness issues and his absence was clearly felt in Punjab’s opening. If the 38-year-old returns for Thursday’s game, it will again be a threat to the opponent’s bowling.
On the other hand, Sunrisers have their tails up after defending a paltry 118 against Mumbai Indians on Tuesday.
The Sunrisers’ bowlers dished out a superb performance to trigger a batting collapse of Mumbai and eventually defend the total by 31 runs at the packed Wankhede Stadium.
KXIP vs SRH head to head:
SRH – 8 wins and 3 loss against KXIP so far.
At the venue- SRH has won four matches while KXIP had just one win to their name.
Ahead of the clash, here is everything you need to know:
Date: 26 April 2018
Venue: Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad.
Telecast: Star Network
Time: 8 pm IST
Live streaming: Hotstar
Teams:
Sunrisers Hyderabad (From): Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson(c), Wriddhiman Saha(w), Manish Pandey, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Basil Thampi, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Chris Jordan, Alex Hales, Carlos Brathwaite, Ricky Bhui, Deepak Hooda, T Natarajan, K Khaleel Ahmed, Sachin Baby, Tanmay Agarwal, Shreevats Goswami, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan
Kings XI Punjab (From): Lokesh Rahul(w), Aaron Finch, Mayank Agarwal, Karun Nair, Yuvraj Singh, David Miller, Ravichandran Ashwin(c), Andrew Tye, Barinder Sran, Ankit Rajpoot, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Chris Gayle, Axar Patel, Marcus Stoinis, Manoj Tiwary, Mohit Sharma, Akshdeep Nath, Ben Dwarshuis, Pardeep Sahu, Mayank Dagar, Manzoor Dar
-With IANS inputs.