Having lost their opening game against Kolkata Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to come back strongly against Rajasthan Royals at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Uppal on Friday. Both teams lost their opening games and what made matters worse was that just like SRH, the Royals too, were cruising till the 16th over of the chase before they lost the plot against Kings XI Punjab.
Even though KXIP skipper R. Ashwin’s decision to ‘Mankad’ RR batsman Jos Buttler shifted the focus from the game, what needs to be remembered is how the Royals’ batsmen failed to score 39 runs in the last four overs, which is supposed to be easy in a T20 format game. Similarly, it was a game in the bag for SRH at the Eden Gardens after a brilliant display of batsmanship from former skipper David Warner on his return to the IPL. But the Sunrisers failed to defend 181 with Andre Russell (49* off 19) and Shubman Gill (18* off 10) taking the Knights home with two balls to spare.
However, what happened in the past must be kept aside and both teams need to look to start afresh. Having lost their first games, both teams will want to come back strongly and get their campaign back on track. While the bowling is an area that SRH will look to correct, the Royals will want to ensure that they get their batting right.
SRH expected playing 11: David Warner, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda, Shakib Al Hasan, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddarth Kaul, Kane Williamson, Wriddhiman Saha,
RR expected playing 11: Ajinkya Rahane, Jos Buttler, Steven Smith, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tripathi
FPJ’s dream 11 prediction: David Warner, Kane Williamson, Jos Buttler, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jayadev Unadkat, Manish Pandey, Sanju Samson, Ajinkya Rahane, Yusuf Pathan