The Sunrisers Hyderabad will look to stay alive in IPL 2014, while the Chennai Super Kings will want to end their two-match losing streak when the two sides meet in Ranchi on Thursday night.
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SRH kept themselves in with a shout of making the playoffs with a convincing win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore a couple of days back, and Darren Sammy and co. will want to take forward that momentum with a win over CSK.
Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner played a great hand in a chase of 161 in Hyderabad, with the former's form, no doubt, bringing great pleasure to the SRH camp and their fans.
"I am really happy because I was getting a lot of thirties and forties," Dhawan told IPL's official website after the win on Tuesday. "I am glad that I converted yet another start into a match-winning knock. It is good to get a half-century in a winning cause."
SRH's plan to push David Warner back to the top of the order along with Dhawan worked perfectly, with the duo putting on a stellar century partnership to take the game away from the RCB. The first win at home, after three consecutive defeats at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, would have also given the side plenty of confidence heading into the must-win encounter against CSK in Ranchi.
"It was an important win for us," Dhawan added. "And the crowd has been expecting us to win games for them, which sadly had not been the case in the previous matches. It was good to see the massive support and we are glad that we put up a show for our fans and ended on a positive note in Hyderabad. It is a happy feeling to win at home."
SRH, on 10 points from 12 matches, four behind the Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals, will now have to take that form away from home, against a CSK side jolted by two poor defeats to RCB and the Kolkata Knight Riders. The Super Kings were thoroughly outplayed by KKR at the Eden Gardens on Tuesday, but the outcome could have been so much different had they held onto their catches.
R Ashwin's inability to hang onto regulation catches have cost CSK in their last two games, with the off-spinner missing a sitter to dismiss Robin Uthappa, the man of the match in the previous game, while also spilling a catch which would have seen AB De Villiers go back to the pavilion early, before the South African played a match-winning knock.
"We didn't field well," CSK batsman Suresh Raina said stating the obvious. "We dropped a few catches, but that happens in cricket. But at the same time, we need to play really well in the next two games, and I hope we do well."
CSK have confirmed their place in the playoffs with 16 points in 12 matches, but they do need another win to, or even two, to ensure they finish in the top two, so crucial because it gives you a couple of bites at making the IPL final.
SRH on the other hand, might see one possible spot already taken away from them before the start of the match, if KKR top RCB in the early match on Thursday.
