Sunrisers Hyderabad win toss, opt to bowl

This is the fourth match of the ongoing IPL 2018 tournament.

Talking statistically, Rajasthan Royals has a little edge over SunRisers Hyderabad as they have clinched 4 out of 7 matches played between the two teams. While there will always be contests within contests like between a great batsman against a great bowler, the ones between skippers is what changes games and this year’s victor will be the team whose captain has made the moves which has turned the tide in his team’s favour.

Just like best of the boxers use combination punches to stun their opponents, SRH also employed a combination of spin and pace to deflate RR (Rajasthan) on Monday night at Uppal in Hyderabad.

“I think foreigners who played, they are really good”.

Rajasthan have a power-packed batting line up through and through. This would be a very bold move given Rahane’s preference to open. He is world class player. Archer, Gowtham, and Klaasen are all big-hitters capable of accelerating the scoring rate.

DD’s bowling attack has weakened with Kagiso Rabada being ruled out of the season because of injury.

For Rajasthan, England’s star all-rounder Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat, the highest paid Indian roped in this season (Rs 11.5 crore), would have to shoulder a lot of responsibility especially after the Jaipur-based franchise spent a lot on the pair.

THE IPL returned with an electrifying weekend of T20 cricket. Jos Buttler, 5. Ben Stokes, 6. Laughlin is 35 now, and his ability to contribute to the team is somewhat in doubt. Looking to flay a Dhawal Kulkarni lifter outside off, Dhawan found a thick edge that was put down by Rahane on the second attempt.

The Sunrisers have a power-packed batting lineup from top to bottom. Then they batted extremely well when it was their turn.

Both Royals and Daredevils were outplayed in their opening games and will be itching to bounce back. Bhuvneshwar Kumar leads the charge. If he strikes form at the right time, Royals will start to look a completely different unit much like Rising Pune Supergiant looked a year ago.

Australian paceman Billy Stanlake extracted good bounce off the pitch causing much discomfort to the batsmen. Sandeep Sharma is another successful bowler who has been great for Punjab over the years.

Shakib would return figures of 2 for 23 from four overs including the wickets of Samson and Rahul Tripathi (17) that ultimately began a Royals collapse.

This is an ideal match to use multiple subs – stocking up on both teams is a wise idea.

Recently, Rajasthan Royals chose South African explosive batsman Heinrich Klaasen while SunRisers Hyderabad appointed English opener Alex Hales to bat in the upper order.

The SRH vs RR match will be a battle between Rajasthan Royals’ batting and Sunrisers Hyderabad’s bowling so it may be hard to make concrete IPL match predictions right away. Let us know in the comments and poll below.