Sinking Royals face tough battle against Sunrisers

Sunrisers Hyderabad will be desperate to start stringing some more consistent results together, and build on the back of their comfortable victory against Kings XI Punjab last time out. They will face up against the Rajasthan Royals in the first of Sundays two matches, and they need to go back to the start and find the form from their first two games, and end their run of four defeats on the spin.

Runs at the top at last

Having two of the best white ball batsmen in the world opening the batting for you is always special, and after a fairly baron opening five games for the Sunrisers at the top of the innings, it was no surprise that a big score was going to come eventually. 160 was the opening partnership last time between Jonny Bairstow (97) and David Warner (52) and near enough won the game for them, with their partnership alone. They had a slight wobble when they were reduced to 175-5 but they managed get themselves above the magic 200 mark and set Kings XI 202 to win.

With the ball, it was the usual Rashid Khan magic that broke the back of the Kings XI run chase. 3-12 from his four overs helped to give the Sunrisers a 69 run win and propel them up to third in the points table. Khan was supported by good spells of bowling from Sandeep Sharman, Khaleel Ahmed and Thangarasu Natarajan.

Calling out for a hero

If ever a team were in need of bringing in one of the world’s best all-rounders it was the Rajasthan Royals. They have gone from looking a very well rounded side after back to back wins to start their campaign, but have slumped to four hefty defeats in a row to sink to seventh in the IPL points table. Captain Steve Smith said that Ben Stokes could come out of his quarantine on the 10^th October so they will be hopeful that is fitness is up to the mark and Stokes can get himself in to the first XI for this match with the Sunrisers.

It wasn’t the usual run rest at Sharjah when Rajasthan met the Delhi Capitals on Friday, with the Royals needing 185 to win. Jofra Archer was the star with the ball claiming 3-24, including the wickets of the opening pair of Dhawan and Shaw. With the bat they disappointed and limped to just 138, being bowled out with two ball of the innings to spare. A disappointing 46 run defeat for Steve Smith’s men.

Match Tip

I am struggling to see such a change in fortune from last time out that will see Rajasthan getting anything from this one. Despite the fact that Ben Stokes is in contention, I don’t think it will be enough.

I am backing Sunrisers Hyderabad to hit more fours than the Rajasthan Royals at 1.91 with Unibet.

Bet Sunrisers Hyderabad to hit the most fours on Unibet