Having moved ahead in the race for a playoff spot after a comfortable victory over Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers Hyderabad will now need to beat the beleaguered Kolkata Knight Riders in their final match here on Sunday to finish among the top four.
Sunrisers have 18 points from 15 matches and they need to win the match on Sunday to enter the play-offs. KKR’s title defence ended after their loss to Pune Warriors on May 15 but they would look to finish the season on a victorious note, a fact acknowledged by Sunrisers chief coach Tom Moody after his team’s win over Rajasthan on Friday.
Though consistency has been a problem for KKR, they have some seasoned players in the form of captain Gautam Gambhir, all-rounders Yusuf Pathan and Jacques Kallis, Ryan ten Doeschate and l Balaji.
Pathan, who scored 72 runs in the match, had a rather unusual dismissal of obstructing the field, the first in an IPl match. Meanwhile, Sunrisers have a lethal bowling attack comprising world’s best Dale Steyn, wily spinners Amit Mishra and Karan Sharma, Sri lanka’s Thisara Perera and West Indies captain Darren Sammy — all of whom have been a nightmare for rival batsmen in this edition of IPl.
The hosts took full advantage of the wicket in Hyderabad that supports the bowlers and even a modest total became tough for the rivals to chase. Except for the match against CSK, the Sunrisers have not lost a single game at home thanks to their combined bowling.
The most recent proof of this was the RR collapse at 113 while chasing 137 runs. Steyn, Mishra and Perera came up with superb two-wicket hauls each in the match to tame the Royals. However, the Sunrisers batting appears lacking in consistency as their top order batsmen including Shikhar Dhawan, Cameron White and captain Kumar Sangakkara have not given a good account of themselves.