Sharjah: Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings will lock horns with each other in 44th match of the Indian Premier League(IPL) at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Thursday. Both the sides will come into having claimed victories in their respective last games.
Hyderabad already out of the contention for the play-offs did have moral boost in the last game registering a 7 wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals. Their disciplined bowling performance managed to restrict the Royals to 164 before debutant Jason Roy’s 42 ball 60 coupled with skipper Kane Willamson(51) got the game over line with ease.
Englishman Roy, replacing out-of-form David Warner can be a decisive change despite their position at the table. Also Siddharth Kaul who bowled with verve at the death in the last game have provided a cushion for the bowling unit which is heavily relied on Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan.
CSK, on the other hand, edged past the Kolkata Knight Riders in a nail biter. KKR posted a competitive total of 171 despite the bowling prowess of Shardul Thakur(2/20) and Ravindra Jadeja(1/21). In reply, Chennai openers Ruturaj Gaikwad(40) and Faf du Plessis(43) gave a solid start which was followed by Moeen Ali(32).
However, fall of wickets at the one end meant the game was stretched to the wire. All-rounder Jadeja smashed a 8 ball 22 to get result although Sunil Narine bowled an incredible final over but CSK won the game on the very last ball by 2 wickets.
MS Dhoni’s side have has form on its side and they would like to maintain its winning momentum going into the play-off stage. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis have provided blazing starts while Moeen Ali’s inclusion at no.3 was certainly a masterstroke as his breezy knocks provided much comfort after either of the openers if got dismissed early on. All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja’s uncanny cameos in crunch situations is also a blessing for them.
