IPL 2014: Kings XI Punjab vs Sunrisers Hyderabad - KXIP seeking a hat-trick of wins

Glen Maxwell will be key to KXIP’s chances again

Having won two high scoring and competitive matches, Punjab will look to keep their winning momentum going when they face Sunrisers Hyderabad for their 3rd match at Sharjah on Tuesday. At the same time, Hyderabad will be keen on registering their first win in this season of the IPL.

Team Punjab is looking strong with proven players such as Glenn Maxwell, David Miller and George Bailey. The Miller-Maxwell pair has chased down huge targets with ease. A terrific knock 95 and 54 against Chennai by Maxwell and Miller respectively demonstrated their wonderful batting style. Maxwell’s incredible knock of 89 off 45 balls against Rajasthan has received much praise.

If Punjab continues to put up splendid performances like these, it will soon become the most sought after team of IPL 2014. However, it will be captivating to see Punjab’s top order perform in case the middle order fails. Punjab’s bowling has not been in the highlight due to some exceptional batting performances. Mitchell Johnson, Parvinder Awana and Laxmipathy Balaji have not done much. The spinners too, have not come up with an outstanding performance as yet.

Hyderabad’s key concern is their batting presentation. They have relied on a few players such as Aaron Finch, David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan. Hyderabad will be looking for their middle and lower order batsmen to play a crucial role as well. Darren Sammy is an essential lower order batsman and he will be responsible to complete the job.

With Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn and Bhuveneshwar Kumar, Hyderabad has an excellent bowling line up. It will be helpful if Ishant Sharma and Karn Sharma start picking up wickets too.

Hyderabad will be anxious for their bowlers to match the standards of their batsmen in order to cease Punjab from obtaining a hat-trick win in IPL7.