Sunrisers Hyderabad, its pride hurt after losing the last three games, should change gears when it takes on the formidable Chennai Super Kings in the Vivo IPL-12 at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Wednesday.
It is pretty obvious that once David Warner and Jonny Bairstow are dismissed, the batting crumbles and unless captain Kane Williamson, who too failed in the last match against Delhi Capitals, makes amends.
No change in fortunes
The middle-order performance, to say the least, has been pathetic.
Despite the changes made, there’s no change in the team’s fortunes which needs to win Wednesday’s game to avoid slipping further in the points table.
If it was the experienced trio of Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan and Deepak Hooda which failed to click in the earlier matches, the exciting young talent Abhishek Sharma, Ricky Bhui and Vijay Shankar too disappointed by not rising to the occasion in the previous game.
The onus, yet again, is clearly on the top three to fire and set the platform for the others to chip in with handy contributions on a wicket said to be a typical T20 strip.
Khaleel impresses
In the bowling department, Sunrisers’ left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed seems to be a certainty after his impressive spell against Capitals. With Bhuvneshwar Kumar regaining his confidence and the spin duo of leggie Rashid Khan and left-armer Abhishek doing a decent job, the M.S. Dhoni-led batting line-up could be tested.
For CSK, everything seems to be going its way, despite early setbacks in the batting.
The inspirational presence of Dhoni in the lower-order has been the most decisive factor.
Dhoni’s confidence seems to be rubbing off on the others and is bringing out their best to perform well under pressure.
With leg-spinner Imran Tahir in great form and Harbhajan Singh likely to play because of Warner’s presence at the top, Dhoni may have the liberty to experiment if he wants to.
Sunrisers need a stand-out performance at home to surprise the favourite Super Kings.