Desperately looking to break out of the IPL mid-table logjam, Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad will be hoping to get a winning momentum when the two sides face off at the newly-built Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur on Tuesday.
Both PBKS and SRH have two wins and as many losses from their four matches to be tied with two other teams in the middle with four points, each. Both the teams are coming into the match after a win, and as such promises to be an exciting match on the cards.
The Punjab Kings side will be riding high on Shashank Singh’s blinder that helped them breach Gujarat Titans’ fortress in the last-ball nail biting clash in Ahmedabad, and will hope to match the ultra-aggressive approach of SRH, who head into the match on the back of a convincing six-wicket win against Chennai Super Kings in their last fixture.
Punjab boy Abhishek Sharma will hope to use his familiarity of the conditions and get SRH off to a flyer once again in the company of the dependable Travis Head, whose pyrotechnics with the bat has allowed the rest of the SRH line-up to build on the starts. SRH has already shown their batting firepower by recording 277 for the highest team total in the history of the IPL against Mumbai Indians.
For a repeat of that, the team would bank on yet another rollicking start from Abhishek and Travis before the likes of Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram could do the late damage. However, if the top four fails for the visitors, it would be a challenge for their untested lower middle order to put up a fight.
In the bowling department, skipper Pat Cummins has led from the front with five wickets in four games but he will need consistent support from his other bowlers. Jaydev Unadkat, Mayank Markande and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have conceded too many runs and the SRH team management will hope to improve in that department.
While Cummins managed to damage control their inconsistency with the ball against CSK, it will be a different challenge against Punjab’s power-packed line-up, boasting of big names like Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone. However, it’s another thing that apart from Dhawan, the other PBKS batters haven’t been able to consistently put up a show so far.
Punjab Kings will hope that their domestic stars — Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma — step up just like Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Singh, who bailed the side out of trouble against Titans.
On the bowling front, Punjab’s story is no different from that of the Sunrisers Hyderabad, and the only difference is the phase of struggle. While SRH bowlers have failed to put up a collective show with the new ball, death bowling remains the only area of concern for Punjab Kings.
South African pacer Kagiso Rabada has been PBKS’ best bowler with six wickets, but the inconsistencies of death-over specialists Arshdeep Singh and Harshal Patel have let them down. Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar has also been expensive though left-arm spinner Harpreet Brar has done well so far.
In head-to-head count, it’s 3-2 in favour of SRH during their last five encounters, and thus awaits a juicy contest between the two sides on Tuesday.