Gujarat Lions (GL) vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), IPL 2017, Match 53 preview and likely XI: Sunrisers aim to tame Lions for play-offs spot

To get a ticket straight to the play-offs, David Warner’s Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will play in one of the most crucial matches of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 against Gujarat Lions (GL) on Saturday.

Sunrisers Hyderabad would hope to find berth in playoffs while the Lions would want to end their campaign on a high © BCCI

To get a ticket straight to the play-offs, David Warner’s Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will play in one of the most crucial matches of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 against Gujarat Lions (GL) on Saturday. This will be SRH’s last chance to qualify through a victory and if they lose the match, their fate will lie upon the outcome of the match between Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) on Sunday. To be played at the Green Park Stadium, Kanpur, the match will be the first of the day with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) taking on Mumbai Indians (MI) later on in the day. Full Cricket Scorecard: Gujarat Lions vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, IPL 2017, Match 53

Siddharth Kaul has been a discovery for SRH this season, picking up wickets consistently in every match. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the Purple Cap holder, and Mohammad Siraj too have contributed from time to time to help their side put up competition. Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan – the Afghanistan duo – has been spectacular with their performance. Though the middle-order batting does not look at par with the powerful start the team gets, the in-form cricketers such as captain David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques and Yuvraj Singh strengthen the batting. SRH, on Saturday, will need all of their men to put in their 100 percent to win the match with ease.

GL, on the other hand, will play for pride. The franchise is out of contention for play-offs and this will be their chance to give their fans something to cheer about. GL have struggled to find the right combinations and constitute a team but there have been heroic knocks and spells. Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik and Dwayne Smith with the bat and Basil Thampi, James Faulkner and Ravindra Jadeja with the ball will be interesting to watch.

Likely XI:

Gujarat Lions: Dwayne Smith, Ishan Kishan, Suresh Raina (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Aaron Finch, Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner, Dhawal Kulkarni, Pradeep Sangwan, Basil Thampi, Ankit Soni

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Yuvraj Singh, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Naman Ojha (wk), Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Mohammed Shiraj

Story so far: Winning seven of their 13 matches, SRH are at No. 5 spot in IPL 2017 points table; with four victories from their 13 matches, GL are at No. 7.

Advantage: Be it confidence or a better team balance, SRH are ahead of GL for the clash.

Squads:

Gujarat Lions: Suresh Raina (c), Akshdeep Nath, Shubham Agarwal, Basil Thampi, Dwayne Bravo, Chirag Suri, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Manpreet Gony, Ishan kishan (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Shadab Jakati, Dinesh Karthik, Shibil Kaushik, Dhawal Kulkarni, Praveen Kumar, Brendon McCullum, Munaf Patel, Pratham Singh, Jason Roy, Pradeep Sangwan, Jaydev Shah, Shelley Shaurya, Nathu Singh, Dwayne Smith, Tejas Baroka, Andrew Tye

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c), Tanmay Agarwal, Mohammad Nabi, Ekalavya Dwivedi, Rashid Khan, Pravin Tambe, Chris Jordan, Ben Laughlin, Mohammed Siraj, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Moises Henriques, Naman Ojha (wk), Ricky Bhui, Kane Williamson, Siddarth Kaul, Bipul Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Yuvraj Singh, Ben Cutting, Abhimanyu Mithun, Mustafizur Rahman, Barinder Sran, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar.