Five ways that Sunrisers can surprise CSK

Sunrisers Hyderabad have played Chennai Super Kings three times this IPL - at different venues and with different XIs - and lost every time. ESPNcricinfo looks at five things they could do better to try and beat MS Dhoni's men in the IPL final.

Carlos Brathwaite's bowling figures in the second qualifier were 2-0-15-2, but he was so close to losing the match for Sunrisers. Defending 18 in the last over, he bowled two length balls "in the slot," as former England spinner Graeme Swann said later, and had two batsmen caught on the leg-side boundary at Eden Gardens. The Wankhede stadium has a much smaller playing area, and Brathwaite should know, having conceded 20 runs in one over when CSK needed 43 off three.

Kane Williamson defended Brathwaite's death-bowling after losing the first qualifier. But he may still be tempted to bring back Alex Hales because, even without Brathwaite, Sunrisers have five bowling options.

One of those five, at least for the first 11 matches, was Sandeep Sharma. He had 11 wickets at a stifling economy rate of 7.02, but fell away in the last couple of games. Sunrisers made the brave call of handing a debut to Khaleel Ahmed in a knockout match and the left-arm quick was taken apart by KKR. Maybe for the final, against a solid batting line-up on a pitch that offers swing early on, Williamson could go with Sandeep's experience.

All through the season, their fans have been waiting for the Sunrisers middle order to find form, but now they face a new problem with the top order too. Since Williamson moved down to No. 3, they are without a proper opener to partner Shikhar Dhawan, which has resulted in two unimpressive Powerplay scores: 47 for 3 in the first qualifier and 45 for 0 in the second. In both innings, either Williamson or Dhawan was left to do the quick scoring because Shreevats Goswami and Wriddhiman Saha could not get going. They need to change that strategy now. On Sunday, the other opener should go after the CSK bowlers so that Dhawan and Williamson can concentrate on batting long.

The Sunrisers bowlers are better than any other team at defending totals, no matter how small they are, but their batting is too dependent on Williamson and Dhawan, especially in chases.

Williamson has scored 32% of Sunrisers' runs while chasing, and Dhawan has also found better form after recovering from an elbow injury that made him miss a couple of matches. But no matter how strong a start they provide, Sunrisers need someone to build on that platform.

Yusuf Pathan did it once against CSK with a 27-ball 45, but could not see them through. Manish Pandey has been unrecognisable, dropped for Deepak Hooda in the second qualifier against KKR, and Shakib Al Hasan has a high score of only 35 this season. In Mumbai, where most captains chase to win, this lack of middle-order support could be a big problem.

If Sunrisers are defending, we know Siddarth Kaul and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will bowl two of the last three overs. So who will bowl the other one?

Against CSK, Williamson kept his strike bowlers for the last two overs, giving Brathwaite the 18th, which turned out to be a match-losing move. On Friday night, Dhawan said they had learnt from that mistake and against KKR, who needed 39 from 18, Williamson gave Bhuvneshwar and Kaul the 18th and 19th overs. They conceded 20 runs, leaving Brathwaite 18 to defend off the final six balls. He pulled it off, but it was far from a clinical performance.

A possible solution is to keep two of Bhuvneshwar's overs for the death. And there's a good chance of that happening if Shakib bowls his full quota of overs. He didn't in Kolkata perhaps because there were too many left-handers in the opposition. But CSK have only one in the top six.

MS Dhoni was enjoying himself with the pads on in the dugout when he sent Deepak Chahar and Harbhajan Singh up the order in the last league game against Kings XI Punjab. He wanted to instill a bit of "chaos" he said. Sunrisers could do the same to CSK by using the batting skills Rashid Khan exhibited on Friday night.

Batting first, even if they have six or seven wickets in hand, Sunrisers could promote Rashid in the death overs to get those quick runs he scored at No. 8 against KKR.

Batting second, will Sunrisers consider opening with Rashid, like Narine does for KKR? Rashid used to open for his club in Afghanistan when he started playing and his range of strokes in the second qualifier proved he is not just a pinch-hitter. It's something their opponents may not expect, and it's something that may make a difference after three defeats to CSK.