IPL 2017: Rising Pune Supergiant vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 5 factors of winning
Sunrisers Hyderabad will meet Rising Pune Supergiant at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Pune. While Sunrisers have come back well with two wins after a couple of losses midway, Pune are languishing just above last placed Gujarat Lions.
One positive for the Steven Smith-led unit is that they are coming off a victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore. That was almost six days ago and the Pune unit had a longer than usual break between games. Their last match at the venue, though, was a disaster as they lost to Delhi by 97 runs. They were bowled out for a meagre 108.
Sunrisers, on the other hand, found a new star in Kane Williamson, who smashed 89 in the previous game. The inclusion of Williamson also eases the pressure on Warner who has been tasked with getting the team to a big total every single time. Shikhar Dhawan's return to form is also a welcome sign.
Here we take a glance at a few factors that could prove to be the difference between the two sides on the night.
With the bat
Pune will know that they need to put up a fighting score on the board. They have the players to do the job in Ajinkya Rahane, Steven Smith, Ben Stokes and MS Dhoni. What has let them down is the fact that two of these players have not clicked together in a game.
Rahane will be tasked with handling the Sunrisers seamers, especially Bhuvneshwar Kumar who is in exceptional form. Smith and Stokes will need to get past the guile of Rashid Khan and boost the scoring rate. A lot of Pune's success in this game would depend on how they play the eight overs bowled by Bhuvneshwar and Rashid.
Sunrisers will stick to their tried and tested method of relying on Warner to take them to a big score. He has more often than not done the job but if he fails, like he did in the last game, they know that Williamson can do a similar job.
Moises Henriques, Yuvraj Singh, Naman Ojha and Deepak Hooda form a decent middle order after Williamson but except for Henriques and Yuvraj, the others haven't really been tested. Pune have struggled with the ball and Sunrisers will hope that even if their top three men fail, one of the middle order batsmen can take them to a big score.