After being stunned by Lucknow Super Giants in their last game, Sunrisers Hyderabad will be keen to hit back hard © BCCI/IPL The moment Ashutosh Sharma smashed one down the ground to seal Delhi Capitals’ opening game, he celebrated with an imaginary switch-hit, dedicating the victory to team mentor Kevin Pietersen. The DC dugout erupted in joy, and their skipper made it clear that this aggressive approach was here to stay. “Get used to it now. Under my captaincy, it’s going to be like this only,” Axar declared. On the other side, there’s Pat Cummins – renowned for giving his players full license to express themselves and bat with fearless freedom. The expectations from Sunrisers’ batting unit were so high in their previous clash against LSG that even a total of 190 felt underwhelming. On paper, SRH might boast the stronger batting lineup, but when they take on DC in Vizag, expect a contest packed with all the spice of a high-octane showdown. A lengthy break since their opening game against Lucknow Super Giants would have allowed DC to settle down and think of strategies to consolidate their winning start. On the other hand, Sunrisers have a short turnaround time from their loss to LSG as they look to avoid successive losses after their five-wicket drubbing at home on Thursday. Rishabh Pant was brave enough to ask Sunrisers to bat, and the bowlers justified his call at the toss with a clever performance to stun the SRH batting arsenal. Will DC, if they win the toss, be bold enough to put SRH into bat in Vizag where the square boundaries are relatively short? While DC will be boosted by the return of KL Rahul, their top order performance in their last game is a cause for concern considering none of their top five touched 30 while chasing 210 against LSG (three of them being single-digit scores). It’s a stat they would love to correct on Sunday while SRH too would want to put behind the below-par batting show against LSG as an aberration and get back to their merry run-making ways. When: DC vs SRH, Match 10, at 15:30 IST Where: Dr YSR ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam What to expect: 34 fours and 29 sixes were hit in the previous game here in Vizag. If that is anything to go by, bowlers will have to brace for yet another exhausting day. The overhead conditions look bright and clear and no rain is expected for the entire duration of the game. The temperature is expected to hover around 30s and the evening breeze should bring some relief for the team fielding second. Head to Head: SRH 13- 11 DC. SRH won 2 of the last 3 fixtures since IPL 2023. Interestingly, all the three recent fixtures between these teams have been won by the team batting first. Team Watch: Delhi Capitals Injury and Availability: KL Rahul has joined the squad after the birth of his daughter and is all set to make his DC debut. Sameer Rizvi is likely to make way for him in the middle order. Tactics and Matchups: Mitchell Starc, playing for KKR, dismissed both openers once in the 11 balls he bowled against them last season. The star pacer, who also conceded only 7 runs against the SRH openers, will be keen to make an early impact again. Probable XII: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Faf du Plessis, Abishek Porel (wk), KL Rahul, Axar Patel (c), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Mukesh Kumar Sunrisers Hyderabad Injury and Availability: Skipper Cummins made no changes against LSG after their opening game and it is highly likely that they could stick to the same combination. There are no injury concerns for the team at the moment. Tactics and Matchups: Kuldeep Yadav’s 22 deliveries to Heinrich Klaasen in T20s were all wicketless, with 39 coming off them. Meanwhile, Kuldeep has a better record against the SRH top order, having dismissed Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan twice each, and Travis Head once, and DC might look at using him slightly early in the game. Probable XII: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Aniket Varma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins (c), Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Simarjeet Singh, Adam Zampa Did you know? – Jake Fraser-McGurk scored 330 runs in nine innings in IPL 2024 at a strike rate of 234.04 and averaged 36.66. Since then, he has scored only 382 runs in 24 T20 innings, at a strike rate of 136.91 with an average of 15.91. – Abhishek Sharma has the best strike-rate (197.3) against spin in IPL since 2023 among all the batters who have faced at least 100 balls. – Harshal Patel is the leading wicket-taker in IPL since 2021, having picked up 92 wickets in 60 matches at an average of 20.23 with an economy of 8.78 What they said: “Last year was really good but that’s history for me. I have taken the positives from there and worked on myself, to improve whatever weaknesses I had. I’m applying what I did in domestic cricket” – Ashutosh Sharma, after his match-winning knock against LSG. “You know, he’s got some natural pace, he can move the ball through the air and if you’re putting those two things together that obviously becomes quite an attractive skill set for a fast bowler to have and he’s also got a few tricks up his sleeve with slower ball variations,” James Franklin, pace bowling coach of SRH, on Simarjeet Singh.
