Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) – two teams with two contrasting fortunes in this 2020 edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) will lock horns on Friday (November 6) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi with an aim of keeping their title hopes alive.
SRH had to win all their last three games in the league-stage to make it to the playoffs and the David Warner-led side played an impressive brand of cricket – beating Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals in their last three matches – to make it to the top four.
In hindsight, Virat Kohli’s RCB lost their last four matches at the end of the league-stage. However, their solid show in the first half of the season, where they registered 7 wins from 10 matches saw them through to the playoffs with 14 points. Now, they can not afford any more slip up.
Possible strategies:
In Abu Dhabi the last five matches have been won by the chasing teams. Here the dew factor plays crucial role in the outcome of the game. Hence, it’s a no-brainer then that both Kohli and Warner should ideally prefer to chase in this Eliminator. However, pundits will always say that in a high-pressure game it is always better to have runs on the board. So, it is going to be a tricky call for both the captains at the toss.
Devdutt Padikkal has been nothing short of a sensation for RCB at the top. However, on few occasions the southpaw has shown tendency of being susceptible against short-pitched bowling and to exploit this weakness of his, SRH have an ideal option – Jason Holder. Also, at times Padikkal can be a bit reckless against balls going away from him and someone like Sandeep Sharma can work on this channel.
The battle of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli with Rashid Khan can be another key factor of the game. Both the RCB batters have faced issues against googly in this IPL and the leggie has got the wicket of de Villiers twice in this IPL.
In this game Kohli has to bowl Washington Sundar in the powerplay to tame the destructive Warner-Wriddhiman Saha pair. The SRH openers likes to go after the bowlers when the field restrictions are on and to counter their gameplan Sundar’s wicket-to-wicket off-break bowling is probably the best possible option of RCB.
To give more flexibility in the bowling department, SRH should ideally play Abhishek Sharma ahead of Priyam Garg in this knockout fixture. Sharma is a handy batter down the order and alongside Shahbaz Nadeem, his left-arm spin can be crucial on that Abu Dhabi pitch, especially against the right-hand batters of RCB.
Chatter from the camps:
“We’ve got two games to reach the final. We have a shot, an opportunity and that’s all we want as a team. I’m sure the guys will be excited about what’s ahead for us. We can be more brave with the bat in pockets. With the ball, probably we could have a strong Powerplay which is our strength. If we implement those things, we’ll be at the right end of the result,” says Virat Kohli.
“I have been working on the carrom ball for a couple of years. The round arm delivery doesn’t bounce much, but it also depends where it pitches – if it pitches on the leather it stays low and if it pitches on the seam it bounces extra. Everyone has been contributing and my job is to fit in. I have been playing like this for the last couple of years,” says Shabhaz Nadeem
Probable XIs:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Joshua Philippe, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (C), AB de Villiers (WK), Moeen Ali, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris/Isuru Udana, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini/Shahbaz Ahmed, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (C), Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, Priyam Garg/Abhishek Sharma, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sandeep Sharma, T. Natarajan
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Time: 19.30 IST I 18.00 local