Titans, Sunrisers will look to surmount bowling woes
With a win and a loss each, there is little to separate Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Yet, it is the latter that will take the field with more confidence when they meet at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday.
GT, after opening with a nervous sixrun win over Mumbai Indians, suffered a 63run drubbing at Chennai Super Kings’ hands that sent its net runrate south. SRH, following the narrow fourrun defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders, raked up IPL’s highestever total (277) before going on to beat MI by 31 runs.
Stark contrast
The contrast is especially stark in the way the teams have batted.
GT has found middleovers acceleration tough, with the likes of Sai Sudharsan, Vijay Shankar, Azmatullah Omarzai and David Miller unable to bat with freedom.
Australian wicketkeeperbatter Matthew Wade will be welcomed back into the squad, but to fit him in, the thinktank will have much tinkering to do.
For SRH, on the other hand, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head and Aiden Markram have been at their marauding best, helping their side breach the 200run mark twice in succession.
Bowling is an area where both GT and SRH have to improve. A better performance will be expected from the seasoned Umesh Yadav, whom GT is banking on in the absence of Mohammed Shami but has gone for more than 10anover. SRH, meanwhile, will look to not concede in excess of 200 again.
This being an afternoon tie, dew will have negligible effect. But the sweltering summer heat will test endurance levels, with temperatures expected to hover around 40°C around starttime.