Jaipur: The Rajasthan Royals will re-join the VIVO IPL 2018 bandwagon after a six-day break when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 28. The Royals have three wins and as many defeats, while the Sunrisers have five wins from seven matches and occupy the second place in the standings.
The Rajasthan Royals batting unit has majorly revolved around the likes of Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson, who have added almost 400 runs together in six matches. Samson, Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler would probably play the most important of roles for RR and if the hosts are to get anything in the vicinity of 160, one of these three will have to fire.
RR’s bowling line-up, on the other hand, with the addition of Jofra Archer looks potent as well and the team which manages to click with the bat will take the cake today in Jaipur. Expect a low-scoring thriller.
While bowling has been SRH’s strength, their batting has left them in a spot of bother quite a few times already this season. Shikhar Dhawan was SRH’s best bet with the bat in their first two matches, however, the southpaw hasn’t been able to get going since.
Sunrisers were able to win their last two matches without Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Billy Stanlake paints a very good picture of the team’s bowling resources. However, captain Kane Williamson and coach Tom Moody should be worried about the dismal showing of the batsmen.
Manish Pandey played a gritty 54-run knock against Kings XI and an encore wouldn’t do SRH any harm. As the Hyderabad-based team don’t bat deep, a lot would depend on these three batsmen. All-rounders Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan and Mohammad Nabi would want to play a considerable role with the willow as well and help SRH scale Mount RR.
The Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad are the teams with the lowest boundary percentages this season; while RR have scored only 50.26% of their runs through boundaries, SRH’s corresponding number stands at 51.61%.
Team Head to Head
Overall: Matches – 8, Rajasthan Royals won – 4, Sunrisers Hyderabad won – 4
Teams:
Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane (C), Ankit Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jofra Archer, D’Arcy Short, Dushmantha Chameera, Stuart Binny, Shreyas Gopal, S Midhun, Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Laughlin, Prashant Chopra, Krishnappa Gowtham, Mahipal Lomror, Jatin Saxena, Anureet Singh, Aryaman Birla, Jos Buttler, Heinrich Klaasen, Zahir Khan and Rahul Tripathi.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Alex Hales, Bhuvneshwar, Dhawan, Shakib, Williamson, Manish Pandey, Carlos Brathwaite, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha, Rashid Khan, Ricky Bhui, Hooda, Siddharth Kaul, T Natarajan, Nabi, Basil Thampi, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Sachin Baby, Chris Jordan, Stanlake, Tanmay Agarwal, Sreevats Goswami, Bipul Sharma, Mehedi Hasan.
Orange Cap
| Team | Pld | Net RR | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CSK | 7 | +0.538 | 10 |
| 2 | SRH | 7 | +0.509 | 10 |
| 3 | KXIP | 7 | +0.228 | 10 |
| 4 | KKR | 7 | +0.062 | 6 |
| 5 | RR | 6 | -0.801 | 6 |
| 6 | MI | 7 | +0.033 | 4 |
| 7 | RCB | 6 | -0.446 | 4 |
| 8 | DI | 7 | -0.482 | 4 |
The match starts at 4 PM IST.
