Abu Dhabi: A place in the Qualifier 2 will be up for grabs when Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) take on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Eliminator at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Friday (November 6).
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 (MI), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Delhi Capitals (DC) in their last three matches – to make it to the top four.
On the other hand, 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.
This will be the third time that these two teams are meeting each other this season. RCB had begun their season with a game against SRH and had come out on top riding on AB de Villiers’ fifty and Yuzvendra Chahal’s three wickets to seal a ten-run win. However, SRH, on the back of their fine all-round bowling performance, avenged the loss in their second meeting at the latter stages of the season. However, when they face each other for the third time, one team is set for an exit from the season.
Rashid Khan is leading the wicket-takers’ chart for SRH with 19 wickets to his name. For RCB, it is Yuzvendra Chahal, who has 20 wickets from 14 matches. As SRH and RCB square off in a game that will halt one team’s journey this season, there will be a battle for the bragging rights between two of the finest leg-spinners in white-ball cricket.
David Warner has 529 runs to his name while Virat Kohli has scored 460 runs from 14 matches this season. The two have time and again proved that they can perform on the bigger stage and will be itching to make an impact in the Eliminator. The two have some solid support. While Warner has Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson and Wriddhiman Saha, who has scored two fifties in his last three outings, to bank on, Kohli will have the solid support of AB de Villiers and Devdutt Padikkal, who has been RCB’s leading run-getter this season with 472 to his name.
SRH at this venue has played 4, won 1, lost 3. RCB at this venue has played 5 , won 2, lost 3. Few approaching achievements by SRH and RCB are: David Warner needs 5 sixes to complete 200 IPL sixes, Wriddhiman Saha requires 21 runs to complete 2000 IPL runs, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal need 40 and 28 runs respectively to complete 500 runs in IPL 2020, AB de Villiers requires 36 runs to complete 500 IPL runs against SRH.
The Squads:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner(C), Jonny Bairstow (WK), Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Jason Holder, Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan, Khaleel Ahmed, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Shreevats Goswami, Siddarth Kaul, Mohammad Nabi, Kane Williamson, Bavanaka Sandeep, Billy Stanlake, Fabian Allen, Virat Singh, Basil Thampi, Sanjay Yadav, Abhishek Sharma, Prithvi Raj Yarra, Shahbaz Nadeem.
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli (C), Aaron Finch, Devdutt Padikkal, Chris Morris, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Isuru Udana, Moeen Ali, Pavan Deshpande, Pawan Negi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, AB de Villiers (WK), Josh Philippe, Parthiv Patel (WK), Dale Steyn, Adam Zampa, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal.
