IPL: Pune face tough task against in-form Hyderabad (Preview)

A struggling Rising Pune Supergiants will aim to get their play-off hopes back on track with a win when they take on high-flying Sunrisers Hyderabad in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here on Tuesday.

Debutants Pune after seven losses in 10 games, find themselves in the bottom half of the points table with just six points. Hyderabad, after a couple of dominating performances, are in the second spot with 12 points from nine games.

Pune come into match after losing to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by seven wickets. RCB skipper Virat Kohli hit a brilliant sentury to outclass the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side.

On the other hand, Hyderabad will be high on confidence after thrashing defending champions Mumbai Indians in all departments of the game and win the match by 85 runs on Sunday.

Dhoni has been left with a low-key side after star players Faf du Plessis, Kevin Pietersen, Steven Smith and Mitchell Marsh had to make their exit from the team due to injuries.

The side has failed to find the right combination which has resulted in a series of losses and currently find themselves in a place from where they have to win all matches to make it to the play-off stage.

The inclusion of Australia batsman Usman Khawaja and George Bailey haven't made a big difference in the side's fortunes.

Their bowlers have also been inconsistent in the tournament.

Opener Ajinkya Rahane has been the lone warrior for them scoring 417 runs so far.

Dhoni, known to be calm and composed in pressure situations, will look to re-group and motivate his men to get back to winning ways on Tuesday.

Hyderabad, on the contrary, find themselves only a few steps away from making it to the last-four stage.

Being lead by in-form batsman David Warner and his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan, the duo have made job easier for batsmen to follow in the middle and lower order with some good starts to the innings.

The return of veteran batsman Yuvraj Singh after injury has strengthened their middle order.

The bowling attack of the Sunrisers comprising veteran Ashish Nehra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Muztafizur Rahman has been the most consistent in the tournament so far.

The pace trio will aim to deliver the same against an inconsistent Pune side and take their team one step closer to play-off stage.

The squads: Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (captain), Ashish Reddy, Ricky Bhui, Bipul Sharma, Trent Boult, Ben Cutting, Shikar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Deepak Hooda, Siddarth Kaul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhimanyu Midtun, Eoin Morgan, Mustafizur Rahman, Ashish Mehra, Naman Ojha, Vijay Shanker, Karn Sharma, Barinder Sran, T Suman, Aditya Tare, Kane Williamson and Yuvraj Singh.

Rising Pune Supergiants: MS Dhoni (captain), Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin, Irfan Pathan, Ishant Sharma, Ishwar Pandey, Jaskaran Singh, Usman Khawaja, M Ashwin, George Bailey, Peter Handscomb, Rajat Bhatia, RP Singh, Scott Boland, Adam Zampa, Thisara Perera, Ankit Sharma, Ankush Bains, Ashok Dinda, Baba Aparajith, Deepak Chahar.

--IANS

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