Dubai: The inexperienced young guns of both Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) would like to put their hands up in testing times when both teams square off in a must-win Indian Premier League game here Thursday. Youngsters like Priyam Garg and Abdul Samad of SRH or Kartik Tyagi and Riyan Parag of RR will definitely feel the pressure in the game. the Royals, the youngsters from both sides will be feeling the pressure of doing something out of the box in case their illustrious seniors fail in that pursuit.
SRH are currently tottering at the second last place in the eight-team table with six points from nine games. Royals are a notch ahead with eight points after their comprehensive win over CSK in the previous game. SRH can’t afford to slip up even one bit since another loss would rule them out of the play-offs.
RR have got their campaign back on track after two heavy defeats. They would also have the edge over SRH, who lost to KKR in the Super Over in their previous game.
While Jofra Archer continues to be the backbone of RR’s bowling attack, the wrist-spinning duo of Shreyas Gopal and Rahul Tewatia were terrific in the middle overs against CSK. Skipper Steve Smith would be hoping for an encore from his bowlers Thursday.
In batting, Jos Buttler looked in ominous form the other night, forcing Smith to play the second fiddle but RR would need more consistent partnerships upfront.
“I have been doing okay, not quite scored as many runs as I would’ve liked to and help the team win matches,” Buttler said on the eve of the match.
The opener is happy that Royals as a team have finally found some momentum going their way. “We have started to play better in the last few matches. We probably should have won the last three but have only managed to win one of those. So we now have four matches remaining, all of which are must-win for us. Then only we will have a chance of making the playoffs,” Buttler said.
“There’s obviously a bit of a gap between the top four teams and us. We know the equation for us, so we move on to the next game with a hope to do well and hopefully win against the Sunrisers.”
All-rounder Ben Stokes is yet to fire and Robin Uthappa had been their weakest link so far. It might prompt Smith to give a go to someone like Punjab dasher Manan Vohra. The other aspect that is hurting them is Sanju Samson’s form which like every other year has gone from good to bad and now worse.
David Warner and Co. would definitely need to re-strategise if they want to keep themselves afloat in the T20 event. The team heavily rely on their batting unit, mainly on the top four comprising Jonny Bairstow, Warner, Manish Pandey and Kane Williamson.
