The Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will take on Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad on Friday. It is the 68th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2013 and the second meeting for the teams.
Overview:
RR defeated SRH in their meeting earlier this season. SRH will be keen to take revenge before their home crowd on Friday. Both the teams come into the contest after conceding defeat to Mumbai Indians in their respective previous matches.
SRH are currently placed in the fifth position with 16 points after winning eight of the 14 matches played so far. They are competing neck-to-neck with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for the fourth place in the table after conceding loss to Mumbai Indians in the previous game. Knowing that they need to win both the remaining games to stay alive in the contention for the Play-Offs, they will be keen to win on Friday.
RR have qualified for the Play-Offs with 20 points after winning 10 of the 15 matches played. This is despite the lost they conceded to MI in the previous game. However, they are troubled off the field after three of its players - Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila - were arrested allegedly for spot-fixing. They will keen to win on Friday and put the off-field demons away.
Previous Meetings:
RR defeated SRH by eight wickets in their only meeting earlier this season.
Team News:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Parthiv Patel (26), Shikhar Dhawan (59), Hanuma Vihari (41) and Cameron White (43) helped the team put up a total of 178 against MI though Kieron Pollard changed the course of the game completely with his batting exploits. They will be expected to perform on Friday, and Kumar Sangakkara and Thisara Perera should chip in too.
On the bowling front, they have Dale Steyn, Ishant Sharma, Amit Mishra, Sandeep Sharma, Karan Sharma, Thisara Perera and Darren Sammy. Their performance this season has been very good except for the last game where they let MI chase down their big total.
Rajasthan Royals: Stuart Binny and Brad Hodge put up a brave fight after the top order collapsed in the previous game. Shane Watson, Rahul Dravid, Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson are all in good form this season, so they have no reason to fail if they put their acts together.
They will play the rest of the tournament without three of its bowlers - Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila - as they are in police custody in connection with spot-fixing scam. James Faulkner, Watson took two wickets apiece while Kevon Cooper and Pravin Tambe took a wicket each in the previous match.
Prediction:
RR are hit hard by the off-field controversy but Rahul Dravid is a strong man and will be expected to pull it through. They are the favourites to win on Friday.
Squads:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kumar Sangakkara (C), Akshath Reddy, Amit Mishra, Anand Rajan, Ankit Sharma, Ashish Reddy, Biplap Samantray, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, Dale Steyn, Darren Sammy, Dwaraka Ravi Teja, Hanuma Vihari, Ishant Sharma, Karan Sharma, Nathan McCullum, Parthiv Patel, Prasanth Padmanabhan, Quinton de Kock, Sachin Rana, Shikhar Dhawan, Sudeep Tyagi, Thalaivan Sargunam, Thisara Perera, Veer Pratap Singh
Rajasthan Royals: Rahul Dravid (C), Ajinkya Rahane, Ajit Chandila, Ankeet Chavan, Ashok Menaria, Brad Hodge, Brad Hogg, Dishant Yagnik, Fidel Edwards, Harmeet Singh, James Faulkner, Kevon Cooper, Kumar Boresha, Kushal Janith Perera, Owais Shah, Pravin Tambe, Rahul Shukla, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Sachin Baby, Samuel Badree, Sanju Samson, Shane Watson, Shaun Tait, Shreevats Goswami, Siddharth Trivedi, Stuart Binny, Vikramjeet Malik
Where to Watch Live
The match will begin at 8:00 pm IST and will be telecast live on Sony Set Max channel.
