Confident Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) lock horns with bruised Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) clash on Sunday (May 1) as Ravindra Jadeja's men brace for pace phenom Umran Malik's challenge.
King of pace Umran in focus
Umran's lethal pace has been the key behind SRH's success in the IPL 2022 campaign so far. The fiery speedster has outsmarted the top-class batters of the world with his top-notch bowling. His exceptional 5/25 show against Gujarat Titans (GT), albeit in a losing cause, is considered one of the best bowling displays in the IPL history.
The right-arm tearaway pacer from Jammu has become talk of the ongoing IPL after clocking over 150 kmph consistently. He has so far picked up 15 wickets from eight matches at a strike rate of 12.00.
But despite his heroics with the ball, SRH eventually fell short by five runs against Gujarat Titans in their last game.
And come Sunday, Malik would look for more support from his pacer colleagues Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Marco Jansen and T Natarajan. Jansen, in particular, was the culprit as he failed to defend 22 runs off the last over against Gujarat with Rashid Khan going hammer and tongs. The SRH team management relied heavily on experienced Bhuvneshwar to lead the bowling pack but he could not live up to the side's expectations and would be desperate to prove his critics wrong. The form of skipper Kane Williamson has been a cause of concern for SRH but the likes of Abhishek Sharma and Aiden Markram have raised their hands and would look to continue their good show.
SRH would also be looking at Rahul Tripathi and Nicholas Pooran to take up more responsibility with the bat. SRH occupy the fourth spot in the 10-team table with 10 points from eight games.
'Perform or Perish' situation for CSK
In contrast, CSK, enduring one of their worst IPL campaigns, need to dish out cohesive efforts to keep themselves afloat in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Ravindra Jadeja has decided to relinquish captaincy to focus and concentrate more on his game and has requested MS Dhoni to lead CSK, in a statement released by the defending champions. Former skipper and legend of the club MS Dhoni has accepted to lead CSK in the larger interest and to allow Jadeja to focus on his game in their future matches.
Placed second last in the table with just four points, CSK are hanging by a thread in the competition and in Malik a bigger threat awaits their already- floundering batting unit.
CSK's problems compounded further when they lost against Punjab Kings by 11 runs in their last game. And any further lapse from here on could spell doom for the defending champions. CSK have been undone by their failure to click in all departments of the game and they would be looking for an inspirational show from new skipper Ravindra Jadeja to turn around their fate. Jadeja himself would be itching to get his mojo back with both bat and ball to at least give his side an outside chance of making the play-offs, which at present looks bleak.
CSK's batting department has been hit hard by the flop show of opener Ruturaj Gaikwad and the youngster, regarded as an India prospect, would look to correct that in the remaining games.
Veteran Robin Uthappa and all-rounder Shivam Dube too need to pull up their socks, while talismanic MS Dhoni has showed his brilliance in patches, the notable one being the finishing knock against Mumbai Indians.
Ambati Rayudu played a brilliant 39-ball 78-run knock against Punjab the other day, albeit in a losing cause and he would be looking for more support from his top-order batters.
On the bowling front too, there hasn't been any exceptional performance from CSK with rookie pacer Mukesh Choudhary struggling throughout the season and Dwaine Pretorius too is looking ordinary.
Old war horse Dwayne Bravo has been a reliable servant of the team, picking up wickets and Sri Lankan Maheesh Theekshana has been a valuable addition to the depleted squad in the absence of injured Deepak Chahar and Adam Milne.
Sunrisers Hyderabad's squad:
Kane Williamson (c), Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholos Pooran, Abdul Samad, Priyam Garg, Vishnu Vinod, Glenn Phillips, R Samarth, Shashank Singh, Romario Shepherd, Marco Jansen, J Suchith, Shreyas Gopal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sean Abbott, Kartik Tyagi, Saurabh Tiwary, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Umran Malik and T Natarajan.
Chennai Super Kings' squad:
Ravindra Jadeja c), MS Dhoni, Moeen Ali, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Dwayne Bravo, Ambati Rayadu, Robin Uthappa, Mitchell Santner, Chris Jordan, Adam Milne, Devon Conway, Shivam Dube, Dwaine Pretorius, Maheesh Theekshana, Rajvardhan Hangargekar, Tushar Deshpande, KM Asif, C Hari Nishaanth, N Jagadeesan, Subranshu Senapati, K Bhagath Verma, Prashant Solanki, Simarjeet Singh and Mukesh Choudhary.
