Fortunes did favour the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the last match but they would be looking to play with much better intent against Kings XI Punjab (KXI-P). With Dale Steyn and Amit Mishra, Kumar Sangakkara would be looking to get his hat-trick of wins at home turf. But with Praveen Kumar and Azhar Mahmood in KXI-P, it isn’t going to be an easy task for the likes of Thisara Perera and Parthiv Patel.
Here we bring to you the players who can make the difference in this match.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH)
Amit Mishra: Mishra was the star of the last match with his four-wickets, including a hat-trick and a cameo of 30 runs which always kept SRH in hunt. His ability to turn the game with the ball makes him a trump card on the slow and low wicket of Hyderabad.
Biplab Samantray: He showed some great character in his knock of 37 runs in last match and was the highest run getter for SRH. He needs to bat up the order as their middle-order looks very unbalanced at this stage of IPL.
Thisara Perera: He is one of the best-bet this season for SRH. He is always in action either with the ball or with the bat which makes him a very crucial player to have in the SRH squad. He just needs to deliver more consistently with the bat in final overs.
Dale Steyn: Steyn is not firing from the last two matches which is making SRH bowling attack look much weaker. He should come up with some impressive performance on his home-ground.
Parthiv Patel: He is not in good touch but can fire at the home-venue. His aggressive batting skills can make a lot of difference in the score tally. He needs to keep his focus and avoid playing lose shots. He got a good start and scored 28 runs in the last innings against Pune warriors India (PWI).
Kings XI Punjab
Praveen Kumar: Praveen is looking in good shape this season and is bowling with some good rhythm. With few good spells and with wickets under his belt, he would be looking to make the most of low-wicket of Hyderabad. His ability to keep nagging the batsmen with his outside off-stump deliveries makes him even more dangerous in initial overs.
David Hussey: He departed after scoring 12 off 15 balls in last game but he has been in good form this season as he just needs a bit of a support from other batsmen to allow him to play his natural game. He can be very dangerous in this format of the game and knowing the conditions inside out will give him an edge.
Mandeep Singh:Mandeep played a sensational knock against KKR and gave his team an ideal start. His ability to score boundaries without taking the aerial route makes him even more dangerous as he will keep getting those odd boundaries by timing the ball perfectly. He will hold the key for Punjab’s success as this match is expected to be a low scoring just like the previous two matches that were played here.
Azhar Mahmood: His all-round ability has made him the hot property for KXI-P this season. He has been very much consistent in bowling which gives Adam Gilchrist some sigh of relief. He needs to bat up the order with David Hussey which will be a better prospect in the long-run for Punjab.
Piyush Chawla: Chawla can assist KXI-P bowling attack with his leg-spin on this track. Spin-friendly wicket will surely help him in restricting the flow of runs but he needs to pick-up the wickets in mid-overs because that has been the real problems for Punjab. If it gets sorted out then SRH would be in a big trouble.
By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network