Settled Sunrisers one win away from playoff spot

Sunday, May 15, 2016
Start time 1600 local (10:30 GMT)

After finishing in the bottom half of the table in 2014 and 2015, Sunrisers Hyderabad find themselves one win away from an IPL playoff spot in 2016. They have three matches in hand, but the failure of their middle order and seam attack against Delhi Daredevils on Thursday should caution them from being overconfident.

The bowlers may have just had an off day but the middle-order has been underwhelming for a while. Sunrisers have scored at a run rate of 7.5 between the 8th and 15th overs in this IPL. Only Gujarat Lions and Mumbai Indians have fared poorer in this period. The number of dot balls faced by the Sunrisers batsmen in these overs - 202 - is second only to Mumbai's 217. The acceleration needed to convert the starts from David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan has been absent, and that becomes a glaring flaw when the bowling fails.

Kings XI Punjab should look to exploit that. Their frontline bowlers Sandeep Sharma, Mohit Sharma and Axar Patel, along with Marcus Stoinis in the last couple of matches, have been outstanding even if the batting has let them down repeatedly. Apart from M Vijay, no batsman has scored more than two fifties this season. Glenn Maxwell has bagged three ducks and averages 19.88 after ten innings, while David Miller has not found form even after being relieved of captaincy.

Kings XI Punjab: WLWLW (last five matches, most recent first)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: LWWWW

Mustafizur Rahman has had an impressive debut season in the IPL, with 13 wickets in 11 matches at an economy of 6.53. He struggled to land the yorkers in the match against Daredevils and Sunrisers will hope the left-armer can recover his rhythm before they enter the knockouts.

Marcus Stoinis has quietly made a mark with some handy knocks as both opener and middle-order batsman. He has also varied his pace well to bowl tight spells in the middle and end overs. His all-round performances this season might tempt Kings XI to retain him as one their mainstay foreign players in the forthcoming seasons.

Maxwell was dismissed for a golden duck on his return from injury against Mumbai and Kings XI may be looking at South Africa allrounder Farhaan Behardien to replace him.

Kings XI Punjab (probable): 1 M Vijay (capt), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 4 Glenn Maxwell/ Farhaan Behardien, 5 Gurkeerat Singh, 6 David Miller, 7 Marcus Stoinis 8 Axar Patel 9 Mohit Sharma 10 Sandeep Sharma 11 KC Cariappa

Despite the loss on Thursday, Sunrisers have a settled combination and are unlikely to tinker with it, unless they have injury concerns. Although, Kane Williamson is struggling for form - he has scored 67 in his last four innings at a strike rate of 89.33.

Sunrisers Hyderabad (probable): 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson/ Eoin Morgan, 4 Yuvraj Singh, 5 Moises Henriques, 6 Deepak Hooda, 7 Naman Ojha, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Barinder Sran, 10 Ashish Nehra, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

A 4pm start means the side fielding first will have to contend with hot weather - temperatures in Mohali are expected to cross 40 C. Most captains have preferred chasing at this venue, but the team batting first has won the last three matches.

"This has been the best match for us this year. In the earlier matches we weren't able to execute our plans to perfection. In this match all the three departments clicked 100%."
Wriddhiman Saha after Kings XI Punjab's seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians