Sunrisers Hyderabad aiming to cement playoff berth
hyderabad — Table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad will be aiming to cement their playoff berth when they take on a struggling Delhi Daredevils in an Indian Premier League game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Saturday.
With six wins from eight games and 12 points in their kitty, Hyderabad boast of one of the best bowling attacks in the ongoing IPL season. Delhi, on the other hand, have managed to carve out just three wins from nine games and are placed at the sixth place in points table.
Skipper Williamson has carried Hyderabad’s batting on his shoulders, amassing 322 runs from eight innings with an average of 46.
However, Shikhar Dhawan and Wriddhiman Saha have not given the required support to Hyderabad’s batting.Saha has been poor with the bat with just 79 runs from seven games while Dhawan has been a bit better with 152 runs from seven innings.
Yusuf Pathan has also failed to fire on several occasions.
Hyderabad mostly rely on their bowlers, who didn’t let the team feel injured pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s absence in last few matches. Williamson is hopeful that Bhuvneshwar will be fit for the game against Delhi. The side has succeeded in defending low totals as they bundled out formidable Kings XI Punjab for just 119 in 19.2 overs while defending a target of 132. Earlier, while defending a modest target of 152, SRH bowlers restricted Rajasthan Royals’ chase at 140.
Spinners Shakib Al Hasan and Rashid Khan have bagged eight and 10 wickets each from eight games while medium pacer Siddarth Kaul has been the most impressive with 11 wickets from eight games. Another medium pacer, Basil Thampi, who has featured in just three games for Hyderabad, has emerged with clinical shows. The 24-year-old has five scalps.
On the other side, Delhi cannot afford another defeat if they want a playoff berth. The side has performed well under new skipper Shreyas Iyer as Gautam Gambhir stepped down following Delhi’s lacklustre start to the campaign. In their last clash against Rajasthan, Delhi came out victorious in a rainaffected tie.
Young Prithvi Shaw, Iyer and stumper Rishabh Pant have been Delhi’s batting mainstay even as their foreign recruits like Colin Munro and Glenn Maxwell have failed to fire. While Shaw has 140 runs from four games, Iyer and Pant have amassed 307 and 375 runs respectively from nine games each.