Bangalore: Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) would look to complete the unfinished business and seal their place in the IPL play-offs when they clash with laggards Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), here Saturday.
The defeat against Mumbai Indians via super over must be hurting but they need to shrug it off and add two points to take their tally to 14, good enough to stay in top four.
Despite their defeat against Mumbai Thursday night, Hyderabad’s net run-rate is +0.653, which is superior to others in contention for the play-offs.
Even if Hyderabad lose their last match, they can still reach play-offs if Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab don’t win more than one of their last two matches.
In the absence of their batting mainstay David Warner, young Manish Pandey shouldered the responsibility pretty well in the last match against Mumbai as he pushed the match into the super over after he carted Hardik Pandya for a last-ball six to bring scores level.
Mumbai Indians had scored 162/5 in the allotted 20 overs. Needing nine to win in super over, Pandya and Kieron Pollard took the side home with three balls to spare. Hyderabad had managed 8/2 with Jasprit Bumrah bagging Pandey and Mohammed Nabi’s wickets.
Captain Kane Williamson, all-rounder Vijay Shankar and comeback man Wriddhiman Saha will look to score in the key match.
Sunrisers bowlers have performed well in patches and need to get their act together against RCB’s master blasters AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli.
The visitors boast of multi-pronged attack in which Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan has been the standout performer. Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed and experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar, along with the Afghan spin twins Rashid and Nabi add sting to Hyderabad attack.
Bangalore will be playing for pride after their hopes of entering play-offs went up in smoke after their match against Rajasthan Royals was abandoned due to rain.
