It will be a battle between Rising Pune Supergiants and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 40th match of the VIVO IPL 2016. The match will be played at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ADA-VDCA Stadium in Vishakapatnam. The Supergiants have struggled to quite an extent in their debut IPL season and are currently in the bottom half of the table at the 6th spot. Meanwhile, the Sunrisers have been on a roll in the 2016 edition of the IPL and are sitting pretty in 2nd place in the league standings.
The Pune side has been highly inconsistent so far and has also borne the brunt of losing out on some key players due to injuries. The performances of the players across both batting and bowling have been quite a mixed bag with very few players doing outstandingly well. Skipper MS Dhoni has not been able to recreate the magic that made Chennai Super Kings the most successful IPL side with his new team as of yet.
The Hyderabad team, however, has easily been among the best sides this season despite having started off on a disastrous note with 2 successive losses. With 6 wins from 9 games, they have skyrocketed their way to the 2nd spot in the points table. The SRH bowling attack has been particularly impressive and is a major reason behind their great success this season.
While the match on Tuesday will be more about survival in the tournament for Rising Pune Supergiants, their opponents, Sunrisers Hyderabad, will be looking to move closer to a berth in the playoffs.
Venue: Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ADA-VDCA Stadium, Vishakapatnam
Match date: 10 May 2016
Match timings: 20:00 IST, 14:30 GMT
If Rising Pune Supergiants bat first
Predicted score: 160 and above
Ajinkya Rahane has been the star batsman for the Supergiants ever since the 9th edition of the IPL began. Rahane has held fort for his team on the batting front despite most of their top batsmen being ruled out of the tournament because of injury. The classy right-hander has scored 417 runs in 10 innings at an average of over 52.
In the past few matches, southpaw Saurabh Tiwary has also started to perform well with the bat for Pune. Tiwary recently got promoted to the top of the order and has scored 2 half-centuries ever since. MS Dhoni has also made a decent contribution with the bat with 182 runs from 9 innings at a strike rate of just under 134.
Aussie batsman Usman Khawaja has not scored big in his 2 innings so far but he has looked dangerous at the start of the innings for his team. Lower down the order, Thisara Perera has added quick runs at a phenomenal strike rate of 176.36.
The bowling has also been decent for RPS in their debut season with Perera being their leading wicket-taker due to his 8 wickets. Leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin had a great start to the season with 7 wickets in his first 5 matches; however, he has failed to pick wickets post that and was dropped for Pune's last match.
Pacer Ashok Dinda has been quite good in the 5 matches he has played this season as he has 7 wickets in his kitty already. All-rounder Rajat Bhatia has also shown good form with 6 wickets and a fine economy rate of 7.07. Adam Zampa, the Australian leggie, had a decent IPL debut as he picked up 2 wickets in the Supergiants' loss to RCB.
The worrying factor for Pune has been Ravichandran Ashwin's struggles with the ball. Th offie has claimed just 3 wickets in as many as 10 games and hasn't been able to provide his skipper with breakthroughs. MS Dhoni may have to consider other options if the senior Ashwin continues to bowl in this way.
If Sunrisers Hyderabad bat first
Predicted score: 170 and above
Skipper David Warner has, by far, been the best batsman for the Sunrisers Hyderabad this season. The dashing opener has scored 458 runs already and averages in excess of 65. The only other batsman who has done well for Hyderabad in the 2016 IPL apart from Warner is his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan with 310 runs till now including 3 fifties.
One of SRH's big signings in this edition, Yuvraj Singh, has returned from an ankle injury and played 2 matches since then. Although he failed to perform in the first match, he made up for it with a breezy 39 off just 23 deliveries against Mumbai Indians in his team's previous game. Kiwi batsman Kane Williamson shined in his first match this year with a half-century but he struggled to get going in the next couple of games.
Apart from the openers, none of the batsmen who have played regularly for the Sunrisers in this IPL has been able to make a mark. All-rounders Moises Henriques and Deepak Hooda have performed quite poorly and contributed little to the team's batting. Wicket-keeper batsman Naman Ojha has also been a major disappointment for them.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad have excelled in the bowling department thus far with most of their top bowlers in fine wicket-taking form. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mustafizur Rahman, in particular, have raised the bar with 13 wickets each in the tournament. Veteran pacer Ashish Nehra has also picked up 5 wickets but more importantly, he has guided the young pace brigade very effectively.
Left-arm fast bowler Barinder Sran has also been among the wickets with 8 in his kitty. Henriques has been decent with the ball and has claimed 6 wickets while conceding his runs at under 8 per over. The spinners have not been used much by Warner in this edition and it is difficult to foresee a role for them in the matches to come as well.
Probable Winners: Sunrisers Hyderabad
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
