The resurgent Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will have a task cut out when they they square off against the charged up Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Saturday (April 23), which will see Dinesh Karthik's fire against Umran Malik's pace and Bhuvneshwar Kumar's consistency.
SRH have come a long way in the 15th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) as once they were teetering at bottom of the table and now they have grabbed the fifth spot in the points table after winning five wickets on trot following two consecutive losses at the start.
Umran, Bhuvneshwar lead the way for SRH
The speedster from Jammu Kashmir Malik has turned everyone's head with his tearaway pace in the ongoing season. Displaying his stunning pace, the 22-year-old put up a match-winning show to defeat Punjab Kings (PBKS) in their last outing. The cherry on the cake in SRH's bowling is Bhuvneshwar, who has found his mojo back.
Not just this, SRH also have yorker-specialist T Natarajan and South African Marco Jansen in their ranks.
Karthik firing on all cylinders
But the veteran Du Plessis and Karthik have smashed the best in the business. The new RCB skipper roared back to form with a fine 96 as he anchored his team's innings after the top order once again collapsed against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).
However, the seasoned South African batter missed out on a much deserved maiden IPL hundred in the 18-run win on Tuesday. On the other hand, Karthik is enjoying one of his best seasons in the league. The wicketkeeper batter has taken the centre stage with his heroics for RCB.
Karthik has seemingly been the best finisher this season with scores of 32 not out, 14 not out, 44 not out, 7 not out, 34, 66 not out and 13 not out in seven innings.
But apart from the duo, the RCB batters will have their task cut out against Sunrisers, who have momentum on their side after winning four games on the trot. All eyes will once again be on Virat Kohli, who would be eager to get out of the rut of low scores.
Opener Anuj Rawat, who apart from a 66 against Mumbai Indians, has failed to capitalise on the opportunity provided to him, S Prabhudessai and Glenn Maxwell too will be hoping to provide substantial contributions with the bat.
Their bowling unit, however, is their strong suite, which was not the case in the previous seasons. Josh Hazlewood has quickly become an irreplaceable piece in the RCB set up. The Australian quick has managed to dominate opposition batters with his consistent line and lengths.
In Hazlewood, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj and Wanindu Hasarnaga, RCB have four match-winners, while Maxwell and Shahbaz Ahmed have also played their part well. They will be up against a SRH batting unit where every batter has taken the responsibility to take their side over the line.
Promoting Abhishek Sharma to the opener's spot has done wonders for the youngster, who has been fabulous at the top, providing SRH aggressive starts.
Williamson back in the business
Skipper Kane Williamson is also back among runs while Rahul Tripathi has shown he too can win matches with the bat when he struck a 37-ball 71 against KKR.
And if the top order fails, the duo of South African Aiden Markram and swashbuckling Nicholas Pooran are there to finish off matches or set huge targets.
A win for Sunrisers will elevate them to the top-four while a victory for RCB may help them grab the top spot.
SRH squad:
Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholos Pooran, Abdul Samad, Priyam Garg, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Washington Sundar, Romario Shepherd, Marco Jansen, J Suchith, Shreyas Gopal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sean Abbott, Kartik Tyagi, Saurabh Tiwary, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Umran Malik, T Natarajan.
RCB squad:
Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammed Siraj, Faf du Plessis, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik, Josh Hazlewood, Shahbaz Ahmed, Anuj Rawat, Akash Deep, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen, Sherfane Rutherford, Jason Behrendorff, Suyash Prabhudesai, Chama Milind, Aneeshwar Gautam, Karn Sharma, David Willey, Rajat Patidar, Siddharth Kaul.
