Finalists of 2018 season, the southern rivals meet at the Uppal this evening in match number 18 of IPL 2024.
Chennai Super Kings sit at the 3rd position whereas Kaviya’s Army perils at number 7 but a win for the orange army today and both sides can very well exchange their position given the margin of victory.
Chennai Super Kings:
Defending champions Chennai got off to a flying start, winning their first 2 matches. Along with an all-round performance from the bowling department, fireworks from the leftie duo of Rachin and Dube guided CSK to the top of the table. However, their winning streak of 6 IPL games came to an end in Vizag. Despite Pathirana’s heroics which he has continued from the previous edition, CSK lost way too much steam in their own batting powerplay to chase a target of 192. CSK fans weren't too disappointed due to Dhoni’s storm in the end, but a loss today can mean CSK slipping out of the top 4 position.
Sunrisers Hyderabad:
The 2016 winners, Hyderabad had an agonising loss in their opening match against Gambhir’s men. However, they did well to oust MI in a record-breaking match at Uppal. Though they couldn't string back to back wins at Motera, with inconsistency becoming a norm with the side since the last 2-3 years. Batters such as Head, Abhishek and Klaasen have been in their usual destructive form but someone like Mayank has played 2 negative impact knocks in the previous two matches. Death-bowling was always going to be a concern for the side and the trend is expected to continue today too.
Predicted Playing XI:
CSK:
- Ruturaj Gaikwad (C)
- Rachin Ravindra
- Ajinkya Rahane
- Daryl Mitchell
- Shivam Dube
- Sameer Rizvi
- Mahendra Singh Dhoni (WK)
- Ravindra Jadeja
- Tushar Deshpande
- Deepak Chahar
- Matheesha Pathirana
Impact player: Maheesh Theekshana
Mustafizur has flown back to Bangladesh for visa concerns and there isn't any certain verdict upon his availability for today's game. If he isn't there, then Theekshana will most probably be brought in to complete the duties at the death.
SRH:
- Travis Head
- Abhishek Sharma
- Rahul Tripathi
- Aiden Markram
- Heinrich Klaasen (WK)
- Shahbaz Ahmed
- Abdul Samad
- Pat Cummins (C)
- Bhuvneshwar Kumar
- Mayank Markande
- Jaydev Unadkat
Impact player: Umran Malik
As stated earlier, Mayank hasn't been in the best of forms and Tripathi might be bought back. Abhishek flew under the radar as an opener in the past 2 seasons and he might be reinstated for today's bout. Washington failed to impress in the previous match and Umran can replace him in order to look for wickets in the powerplay.
Playing Conditions:
The Uppal was quite high scoring in the previous season with the average first innings score standing at around the high 170s, though spinners got some purchase as the wicket broke down under the summer sun as the season rolled on. Though in the previous match, there wasn't a single scope of help for the bowlers as batsmen of both SRH and MI piled on boundaries after boundaries. A record 523 runs were scored with SRH breaking the record for most runs in a single innings. Though a fresh pitch is going to be used today, a black-soil one in place of the red-soil used against MI. So, expect the runs to be lesser this time though expect the batters to target the straighter boundaries.
Interesting Stats and Trivia:
- Jaydev Unadkat needs a record-breaking 7fer to complete 100 IPL wickets.
- Dhoni needs 43 runs to overtake ABD for becoming the 6th highest IPL run-getter.
- Heinrich Klaasen’s strike rate of 176.42 is the highest for any IPL batter with minimum 10 innings.
- 65% of IPL matches at the Uppal Stadium have been won by the team losing the toss.
Match Details:
Time: 7:30 PM IST
Venue: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium (Uppal), Hyderabad
Live broadcast: Star Sports Network
Live streaming: Jio Cinema app
Dream XI:
