IPL-2024: SRH to take on RR at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium (Uppal) in Hyderabad: SRH opt to bat

In IPL, Sunrisers Hyderabad will face Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium (Uppal) in Hyderabad. The match will start today at 7.30 pm. Sunrisers Hyderabad have won the toss and have opted to bat. Pat Cummins: We are gonna have a bat. The games we have won, we batted first. That’s probably our strength. Looks like a good wicket.

Slip ups are quite common in the IPL, and Rajasthan Royals know that too well, having messed up a good position in the previous season which resulted in them not making the playoffs cut. They had won five out of their first eight games before losing their way in the latter half of the competition in 2023. But they have learnt their lessons and are riding high with eight wins in nine games in 2024, and have a foot in the playoffs door. Their opponents on Thursday are sailing in a similar boat RR found themselves in last season.

Sunrisers Hyderabad, who have set a new benchmark for batting in T20 cricket, were looking formidable with their brand of cricket which had earned them five wins in seven games. But successive losses against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Chennai Super Kings, both by big margins and both while chasing, have rocked their smooth-sailing boat. And they will be hoping to avoid the situation that the Royals ended up in last year.

Having been used to flamboyant starts from the opening duo of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, Sunrisers have struggled to cover ground whenever the openers haven’t clicked. That, along with Heinrich Klaasen’s low scores in the last few outings and Aiden Markram not being in the best touch, have exposed a few chinks in SRH’s batting armour as they fell well short in 200-plus run-chases in their last two games. Skipper Pat Cummins has also been expensive in his last two outings, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar has not been penetrative enough, adding to SRH’s problems. With the business end of the tournament coming soon, they need to pull their socks up with the other teams looking to catch up.

A loss sandwiched between four successive wins on either side, things have been going well for the Royals this season. Their openers have struck centuries, the captain Sanju Samson has been delivering consistently with the bat – which has even earned him a spot in the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup – and Dhruv Jurel has also found form scoring a half-century in their win against Lucknow Super Giants. The bowlers have also been on the mark, with Sandeep Sharma being the stand-out in the last couple of games. If anything, they’ll be hoping for a few wickets for Yuzvendra Chahal, who also made the T20 World Cup cut, to help the legspinner regain his confidence having had a few expensive outings.

Squads:

Rajasthan Royals Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Rovman Powell, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sandeep Sharma, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Shubham Dubey, Tanush Kotian, Navdeep Saini, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Kuldeep Sen, Donovan Ferreira, Abid Mushtaq, Kunal Singh Rathore

Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen(w), Nitish Reddy, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Pat Cummins(c), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, T Natarajan, Anmolpreet Singh, Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Umran Malik, Mayank Markande, Rahul Tripathi, Mayank Agarwal, Upendra Yadav, Jhatavedh Subramanyan, Sanvir Singh, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Marco Jansen, Akash Maharaj Singh