Hyderabad: Having lost their opening clash, Rishabh Pant’s Lucknow Super Giants will be wary of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s ultra-aggressive approach with the bat when the two teams face off in the Indian Premier League here on Thursday.
Last year’s runner-up SRH picked up from where they had left off in the opening clash to nearly break the record of the highest total in the IPL, handing the Rajasthan Royals a crushing defeat by 44 runs.
The huge win also propelled SRH to the top of the points table for having the best net run rate and given their all-round firepower, the Pat Cummins-led side would want to maintain their dominance in the competition.
SRH went hammer and tongs against RR with their new recruit Ishan Kishan smacking a century and the other big guns firing as usual to make 286/6 in their last outing here at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Uppal.
Such batting approach could be terrifying for the opponents and SRH’s remarkable consistency makes them the most feared batting unit in the IPL circuit.
The addition of Kishan to the mix of SRH’s premier weapons in Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen is another masterstroke. To top it off, Nitish Kumar Reddy too struck his runs at more than 200 against Rajasthan Royals.
Kishan appeared to be a man on a mission as he struck his maiden century in the IPL after being let go by Mumbai Indians, smashing six sixes and 11 fours in his 47-ball 106 not out.
In such circumstances, LSG will be required to have clear bowling plans as the smallest of error is proving costly in the IPL, which has already witnessed a new record being made — 119 sixes have been struck in the first five matches.
On their part, LSG, who lost to Delhi Capitals by one wicket in a thrilling finish showed a similar approach with the bat but they were guilty of losing their way in the middle overs, which proved to be costly.
LSG lost six wickets and added only 76 runs in their last eight overs against Delhi Capitals and despite early wickets, they could not withstand the onslaught by the lower-order as Ashutosh Sharma’s 66 not out handed his side a win.
LSG’s new skipper Pant had a forgettable game of sorts in his first outing with the team, falling for a six-ball duck during their batting slide and he also missed a regulation stumping when DC needed six off the final over with one wicket in hand.
Nicholas Pooran was magnificent in his strokeplay but the tone was set by Mitchell Marsh — playing in this IPL only as a specialist batter — with his stunning attack on the DC bowlers.
While LSG would feel they did not do too many things wrong in the clash against DC, they would know a better show with the ball will be paramount against SRH who have been severe on all opponents.
Apart from their senior spinner Ravi Bishnoi, LSG will also have high hopes from the unheralded duo of Manimaran Siddharth and Digvesh Rathi, who both bowled with control to snaffle a couple of wickets each against DC.
With Shardul Thakur outrunning DC’s Mitchell Starc to find swing with the new ball which resulted in a couple of wickets, it was inexplicable why LSG did not turn to the senior all-rounder who bowled only two overs upfront when the opposition was running away with the games.
On these counts, LSG would be expected to come up with better plans.
Teams (from):
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Pat Cummins (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Atharva Taide, Abhinav Manohar, Aniket Verma, Sachin Baby, Heinrich Klaasen, Travis Head, Harshal Patel, Kamindu Mendis, Wiaan Mulder, Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Shami, Rahul Chahar, Adam Zampa, Simarjeet Singh, Zeeshan Ansari, Jaydev Unadkat, Eshan Malinga.
Lucknow Super Giants: Rishabh Pant (c&wk), David Miller, Aiden Markram, Aryan Juyal (wk), Himmat Singh, Matthew Breetzke, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Mitchell Marsh, Abdul Samad, Shahbaz Ahmed, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Arshin Kulkarni, Ayush Badoni, Shardul Thakur, Avesh Khan, Akash Deep, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Akash Singh, Shamar Joseph, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi.
Match starts at 7:30 pm IST.
