Hyderabad to face Gujarat after a 7-day break
Hyderabad will take on Gujarat after a 7-day break. Gujarat was unable to play their previous match at their home ground due to rain, but before that they had thrashed Chennai Super Kings.
Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan scored centuries in that match, but that is past. Once again, the situation is such that one team is under pressure and the other team is out of the IPL, so there will be no pressure on them. It will just be that they will probably want to finish the IPL in a good way.
Gujarat had beaten Hyderabad in three consecutive matches earlier in the season. However, this will be the first time that the two teams will face each other in Hyderabad, and the story is different this time.
Gujarat’s successful captain Hardik Pandya is not part of the team anymore, Rashid Khan is not in good form, Wriddhiman Saha is out of the team due to poor performance, David Miller’s bat is yet to produce something destructive, and no finisher in the team has been able to play a good role so far.
Hyderabad’s season has been a mixed bag. When they have played their best, they have been unstoppable, especially when batting first. They have put up big scores on the board, and the biggest reason for their success has been their openers, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma.
Middle Order Muddle for Hyderabad, Gujarat have Challenging Bowlers
The middle order has only batted well when the top order has given them a platform to build on. Otherwise, as against Mumbai and Chennai, when the top order did not get a good start, Hyderabad’s middle order crumbled quickly.
The big challenge for Hyderabad is to play under pressure. They need to win, as they have two matches left and if they win both, they can still finish in the top two. So, keeping these things in mind, they will definitely feel some pressure, but it could also be that they will plan better.
They teams had a 7-day break, so they will be relaxed. And before the 7-day break, they had almost slaughtered Lucknow, scoring 160+ runs in less than 10 overs while chasing down the target.
So, it seems that Hyderabad will not want to take any chances of not qualifying for the playoffs in the next match. They will not play this match lightly, knowing that it is their home match and they will have to take full advantage of it.
And they know that the biggest challenge Gujarat faces is Shubman Gill and Sai Sudarshan. From a batting point of view, the whole team rests on these two batsmen. The other batsmen can contribute some runs, but they cannot score a 200-plus score.
The biggest test for Hyderabad will be whether their middle order can take responsibility if their top order fails. It will be a big test for them. Can Heinrich Klaasen and Abdul Samad score runs when the top order batsmen don’t?
Nitish Reddy has been in good form, but he is still young and inexperienced and you can’t expect too much from him to rescue you. This is the role of middle order, and perhaps they will be needed today as Gujarat has two good spinners, Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmed, and we might see them batting today.
If we talk about form, experience and playing style, Hyderabad’s result seems to be a foregone conclusion, as they have a lot of experience. They also have a strong bowling attack with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the captain himself, T Natarajan. So, Hyderabad’s chances of winning today are very high.
Hyderabad is the favorite to win this match. They have a strong batting and bowling lineup, and they are playing at home. Gujarat will have to play out of their skins to win this match.
