Both Sunrsiers and Kings XI have garnered six points after three wins from five games. (Source: AP)Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) host Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Mohali on Monday in match 20 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019. Both, KXIP and SRH, come into this encounter on the back of defeats in their respective matches against CSK and MI.
However, for KXIP this is only the second loss of the tournament and hence the confidence will be up in the KXIP camp. Sunrisers Hyderabad who were shot out for 96 by Mumbai Indians will also look to get back to winning ways. Kane Williamson’s absence finally seems to be making an effect on the side as stand in captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar lacks the steel to galvanize a team.
Both Sunrsiers and Kings XI have garnered six points after three wins from five games but the Hyderabad outfit is placed second in the eight-team standings on account of a better run rate.
Team Talk-
For SRH, their middle-order woes were exposed against MI after the opening duo of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow departed quickly. and will have to sort out that problem before taking on KXIP.
Sunrisers have been threatening in their first three games when David Warner and Jonny Bairstow stitched century-plus stands but once the duo got out cheaply, the Hyderabad team’s middle-order looked in complete disarray.
Sunrsiers’ middle-order has hardly been tested and when the opportunity came against Mumbai Indians, the likes of Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey, Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan fell flat.
Chasing a modest 137 against Mumbai for a win, debutant Alzarri Joseph wreaked havoc to bundle out Sunrisers for 96.
On the bowling front, the pace trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma and Siddharth Kaul have been descent so far while the Afghan spin duo of Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi have been more than impressive in the middle overs.
Kings XI, on the other hand, lost the match against CSK in a strange manner despite half-centuries from K L Rahul (55) and Sarfaraz Khan (67) while chasing 161. Kings XI batsmen were choked for runs by the CSK spinners and with Rashid and Nabi in Sunrsiers’ rank, it is going to be another difficult outing for the home team batsmen.
The destructive Chris Gayle, who missed one match, also looks fit and if he gets going then SRH’s bowlers will surely have a tough time.
While pacer Mohammed Shami had had an erratic tournament, skipper Ravichandran Ashwin has been leading Kings XI from the front in the company of Sam Curran, Murugan Ashwin and Andrew Tye.
Pitch and conditions: The players will be happy that it is not a 4 PM start. One positive thing is that there is not a lot of humidity but expect a lot of sweating as conditions will be hot. It is a big ground with the biggest being 86m so a lot of running on the cards. Pacers have a better average on this ground as compared to spinners. The track at Mohali known to be flat, we could be in for yet another high-scoring encounter.
Teams-
Kings XI Punjab: Ravichandran Ashwin (capt), Chris Gayle, Lokesh Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Mayank Agrawal, Karun Nair, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and David Miller, Sam Curran, Varun Chakaravarthy, Nicholas Pooran, Moises Henriques, Hardus Viljoen, Darshan Nalkande, Sarfaraz Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Agnivesh Ayachi, Harpreet Brar, Murugan Ashwin, Andrew Tye, Ankit Rajpoot, Mandeep Singh, Simran Singh.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (capt), Basil Thampi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Hooda, Manish Pandey, T Natarajan, Ricky Bhui, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul, Shreevats Goswami, Khaleel Ahmed, Yusuf Pathan, Billy Stanlake, David Warner, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Shakib Al Hasan, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Martin Guptill, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem.
