After losing two games in a row, Hyderabad made a quick turnaround in their fortunes by scoring two stupendous wins in their last two matches - against Mumbai Indians (by 7 wickets) and Gujarat Lions (by 10 wickets) yesterday.
Despite injuries to its key players, including Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra and Kane Williamson, the Hyderabad side has been on a high with the team clicking collectively during the last two matches.
One big relief for SRH would be the performance of its other opener Shikhar Dhawan who returned to form yesterday with an unbeaten 53 after a poor show in the previous three matches.
The other SRH batsmen, including Moises Henriques, Eoin Morgan and wicket-keeper batsman Naman Ojha, have also been making useful contributions to the side in crucial situations.
Despite the absence of the seasoned Nehra, the SRH bowlers have made an impact to make it difficult for their rivals. Seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar broke the back of Gujarat innings with his four-wicket haul yesterday, including the all-important wicket of Gujarat opener Aaron Finch.
With two points from four matches, Kings XI Punjab, on the other hand, is at the bottom of the points table in the competitive tournament.
The KXIP batting has not been very consistent so far with only Manan Vohra putting up decent scores and others falling short of expectations.
Needless to say, the Punjab side needs to pull up its socks and its batsmen, including captain David Miller, Glen Maxwell and Vohra, have to come out with all cylinders blazing to pose any challenge to Hyderabad.
Teams (from):
Kings XI Punjab: Kings XI Punjab: David Miller (C), Kyle Abbott, Murali Vijay, Manan Vohra, Mitchell Johnson, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Anureet Singh, Axar Patel, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Pardeep Sahu, Sandeep Sharma, Mohit Sharma, Marcus Stoinis, Swapnil Singh, Armaan Jaffer, Farhaan Behardien, KC Cariappa, Rishi Dhawan, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Nikhil Naik, Shardul Thakur.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (C), 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.
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