Kane Williamson of Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson during match 28 of the Vivo Indian Premier League between Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Captain Sanju Samson needs the support of his batsmen as Rajasthan Royals look to get back on track and keep their Indian Premier League play-off hopes alive against Sunrisers Hyderabad here on Monday.
RR are currently seventh with eight points from nine matches, while SRH are already out of contention after just one win and eight upsets.
RR beat Punjab Kings by two runs before losing by 33 runs to table toppers Delhi Capitals in the second leg of the T20 league on Saturday.
SRH, on the other hand, lost against DC and Punjab by eight wickets and five runs respectively, Post IPLResume in UAE.
Come Monday, RR will surely envision their chances against SRH in a battle of the strugglers. In the first leg in India, RR beat SRH by 55 runs.
In their game against DC in the second leg, the RR bowling unit continued their impressive run, restricting the opponents to 154 for six.
But it is the batting department that let RR down with the single hand of Samson (70 not out).
The likes of young Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mahipal Lomror, who acted with the bat against Punjab, and Liam Livingstone and David Miller all failed to partner with Samson.
All-rounders Riyan Parag and Rahul Teotia also did not help him.
But the performance of their bowling unit in both the matches will give RR confidence.
speed of trio Mustafizur Rahman, youngsters Karthik Tyagi and Chetan Sakalaria have been impressive with the ball, while South Africa’s Tabrez Shamsi and Tewatia have delivered the goods in the spin department.
SRH, on the other hand, have had a disastrous campaign this season, losing eight out of the nine matches they have played so far.
With nothing to lose after being knocked out of the tournament, the bottom spot SRH would be looking to play with the party-poppers from here on out.
For SRH, it’s all about enjoying the remaining few games and finishing at a high level.
Jonny Bairstow, their season’s leading run-getter, pull outs and with Australian opener David Warner in poor form, find SRH tough.
Skipper’s Choice Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Wriddhiman Co:, Kedar Jadhavi And Abdul Samad also failed to provide the required momentum to SRH’s batting.
SRH’s bowling is dependent on spin sensation Rashid Khan as it has been mediocre for the likes of this season. Khaleel Ahmed, Bhuvneshwar Kumar And Jason Holder.
Teams (from):
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (Captain), Liam Livingstone, Evin LewisDavid Miller, Chris Morris, Oshane Thomas, Mustafizur Rahman, Tabrez Shamsi, Glenn Phillips, Chetan Sakaria, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Akash Singh, Anuj Rawat, KC Cariappa, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dubey, Shreyas Gopal, Karthik Tyagi, Mayank Markande, Jaydev Unadkati, Kuldeep Yadav, Mahipal Lomror.
Sunrisers HyderabadKane Williamson (Captain), David Warner, Manish Pandey, Sherfane Rutherford, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Rashid Khan, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddharth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, T Natarajan, Basil Thampi, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Abdul Samad, J Suchit, Jason Holder, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb-ur- Rahman, Jason Roy.
The match will start at 7:30 PM IST.
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