IPL 2019, Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Chennai Super Kings: How the teams could line up
On 23 April, the Sunrisers Hyderabad will take on the Chennai Super Kings for the second time in IPL 2019, this time in Chennai. The Super Kings have seven wins from 10 games and are at the top position in the IPL points table, while the Sunrisers are in fourth position with five wins from nine matches.
Even though the Chennai Super Kings lost a last-ball thriller against the RCB on Sunday, they will come into the match with confidence as their skipper has been superb throughout the season. The bowling has been performing well too, which is a good sign looking ahead at the playoffs and beyond.
The strength of the Sunrisers Hyderabad is their openers. If CSK can manage to snap up the early wickets of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow, it will be interesting to see how the SRH middle-order plays the tricky CSK bowling unit.
Head-to-head record
These two teams have faced each other 11 times in the past. CSK have emerged victorious in eight games, while the Sunrisers have managed to win only three times.
Probable XI – Chennai Super Kings
Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Dwayne Bravo, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Imran Tahir
Players on the bench: Murali Vijay, Sam Billings, Dhruv Shorey, N Jagadeesan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Mitchell Santner, Scott Kuggeleijn, Chaitanya Bishnoi, Harbhajan Singh, Karn Sharma, KM Asif, Monu Kumar
Player to watch out for – Imran Tahir
The veteran spinner from South Africa has been sensational so far in this season. He has taken 16 wickets from 10 games at an average of 14, and could a major thorn in the flesh of the SRH batsmen.
Probable XI – Sunrisers Hyderabad
David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Deepak Hooda, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed.
Players on the bench: Ricky Bhui, Manish Pandey, Shreevats Goswami, Wriddhiman Saha, Martin Guptill, Mohammad Nabi, Siddharth Kaul, Shakib Al Hassan, Basil Thampi, Billy Stanlake, T Natarajan, Abhishek Sharma
Player to watch out for – David Warner
The Orange Cap holder is undoubtedly the trump card for the Sunrisers. With 517 runs from 9 games, he has been superb for them so far, and would want to make the most of the last few matches he is in India.