Sunrisers Hyderabad may be facing the injury woes but the Kane Williamson led side will be eager to take the revenge when they face a confident looking Kings XI Punjab at Rajiv Gandhi stadium in Hyderabad.
Despite missing their main bowlers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Billy Stanlake in the last encounter against Mumbai Indians, Siddharth Kaul alongside Rashid Khan ensured that their team defended the modest target of 118, against a formidable looking Mumbai Indians batting line-up. This incredible performance by SRH bowlers speaks the volume of depths in the bowling line-up, and it can surely be termed as the “best bowling unit of the tournament”
The return of form for Rashid Khan is a happening sign for the Hyderabad based franchise, on the other hand, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is expected to get fit and feature in the playing 11.
In Mohali, it was KXIP who had handed out a 15-run loss to the Sunrisers, courtesy of Chris Gayle, who had cracked a 63-ball 104. The West Indian T20 exponent has looked in great form this season with a hundred and two fifties and is expected to feature in the playing 11, after missing the game against Delhi Daredevils at Kotla.
Both the teams are fighting to reach the top spot in the points table and both will have an equal chance of winning the match.
Head-to-head
KXIP 2 – SRH 8
Key battle
The match will see this edition’s one of the top run getter Chris Gayle, willing to create another storm in the city of pearls. But T20’s number 1 ranked bowler Rashid Khan is back in form with a man of the match title in the last match against Mumbai Indians and will not be an easy target for Gayle.
Key Players
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson, Rashid Khan
Kings XI Punjab: Chris Gayle, Mujeeb Zadran
Match Date: 19 April 2018, Thursday
Match Timing: 20:00 IST, 14:30 GMT
Match Venue: Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali, India
Astrological Predictions
Punjab’s win percentage: 74%
Hyderabad’s win percentage: 26%
Weather
There is no signs of rain, and the temperature will range from 32′-36′ degree celcius with the humidity level at 27% at evening. The sky will be clear with a cloud cover of 31%.
Teams
Kings XI Punjab: Lokesh Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin (c), Mayank Agarwal, Aaron Finch, Yuvraj Singh, Karun Nair, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Andrew Tye, Mohit Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Chris Gayle, David Miller, Ankit Rajpoot, Manoj Tiwary, Barinder Sran, Akshdeep Nath, Ben Dwarshuis, Pradeep Sahu, and Manzoor Dar.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan, Shakib Al Hasan, Kane Williamson(C), Manish Pandey, Carlos Brathwaite, Yusuf Pathan, Wriddhiman Saha, Rashid Khan, Ricky Bhui, Deepak Hooda, Siddarth Kaul, T Natarajan, Mohammad Nabi, Basil Thampi, K Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Sachin Baby, Chris Jordan, Tanmay Agarwal, Shreevats Goswami, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan, and Alex Hales.
