IPL 2013 Preview: Thisara Perera’s forced absence could hit Sunrisers Hyderabad in Chennai
IPL 2013 Preview: Thisara Perera’s forced absence could hit Sunrisers Hyderabad in Chennai
After a five-day break, the Sunrisers Hyderabad travel 600kms down south to the port city of Chennai to take on MS Dhoni's powerful Chennai Super Kings. Both teams currently sit on 10 points in the table and second-placed Chennai find themselves ahead of Hyderabad on net run-rate. While Chennai's accomplishment of having won five games out of seven is nothing out of the blue, not many expected IPL's newest franchise to put up a challenge so early in the tournament.
Written by Jaideep Vaidya Published: Apr 24, 2013, 01:17 PM (IST) Edited: Apr 24, 2013, 01:17 PM (IST)
After a five-day break, the Sunrisers Hyderabad travel 600kms down south to the port city of Chennai to take on MS Dhoni’s powerful Chennai Super Kings. Both teams currently sit on 10 points in the table and second-placed Chennai find themselves ahead of Hyderabad on net run-rate. While Chennai’s accomplishment of having won five games out of seven is nothing out of the blue, not many expected IPL’s newest franchise to put up a challenge so early in the tournament.
It’s no secret that the Hyderabad team bank on its bowling attack, spearheaded by Dale Steyn and strung together around the fingers of leg-spinner Amit Mishra, who got a third hat-trick to his name in the tournament’s short history. The bowlers have done the cleaning up after the batsmen just failed to get going. This is emphasised by the fact that the Sunrisers have just one score of above 140 in the tournament — 161 they scored against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, and still lost. If you take an average of their six other scores in the tournament, it comes up to less than 125.
The Hyderabad batting will also have to do without the reliable middle-order batsman Thisara Perera in Chennai due to the ongoing dispute. This could mean that Darren Sammy might get a first game. Shikhar Dhawan is also expected to regain match fitness soon, and Hyderabad would sure be bolstered if the swashbuckling opening bat gets to play in Chennai.
As for the Super Kings, they have looked the most consistent team in the tournament. Save for a humiliating 24-run loss against Pune Warriors, Dhoni’s team have given a solid fight in all their games. No total is safe and big enough for the Super Kings to chase, as they showed in their five-wicket win chasing Rajasthan Royal’s 184 in their last match.
Chennai’s batting generally revolves around two players — Michael Hussey and Dhoni. Hussey already has three half-centuries to his name and is averaging 76.25 in the tournament. Dhoni is, of course, the Mr Reliable in Chennai’s middle-order. If Hyderabad can get these two out early, it might make their job just that tad easier.
Teams:
Chennai Super Kings (Probable): Michael Hussey, Srikkanth Anirudha, Suresh Raina, Subramanium Badrinath, Dwayne Bravo, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Chris Morris, Jason Holder, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohit Sharma.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (Probable): Shikhar Dhawan, Parthiv Patel (wk), Hanuma Vihari, Cameron White (c), Biplab Samantray, Darren Sammy, Ashish Reddy, Amit Mishra, Karan Sharma, Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma.
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