After the high-octane first Qualifier of the Playoff stage in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the action shifts to a potentially thrilling Eliminator between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
The fixture is scheduled at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium at Abu Dhabi on Friday. The last time the two teams met, SRH came out triumphant by a margin of five wickets.
In the return fixture, it was the RCB side which defeated SRH by a margin of 10 runs. Therefore, there’s not much to choose from between the two sides, in context of this competition.
Moreover, there is a stark difference in form between the two sides. SRH qualified for the playoffs and sealed the third place in the points table by winning their four out of their last five games in the league stages.
They will be coming off a stunning three-match winning streak. RCB, on the other hand, slipped from second to the fourth on the points table, after losing their last four games during the league stages.
SRH’s change in fortunes coincided with the decision to omit Jonny Bairstow and pair Warner up with Wriddhiman Saha. The SRH’s batting outfit looks entirely different, with the veteran Indian wicketkeeper-batsman at the top.
When it comes to the Head to Head records, SRH has the edge over RCB with 10 wins. RCB has managed only eight wins against SRH over the years.
However, the wound is still fresh for RCB skipper Virat Kohli, who faced defeat at the hands of David Warner’s men during the final of 2016 IPL season.
The season was memorable for both Warner and Kohli as the two were involved in a ‘David vs Goliath’ battle for the Orange Cap. King Kohli, with his four IPL ton in a single season, went on to pile on a record 950+ runs in the tournament and ended up second in the competition.
Warner led his side to maiden IPL title with a staggering tally of 858 runs, which is the most by any overseas batsman in the history of the tournament. That said, the encounter is all set to be a hard-fought one, given the rich history between the two sides.
Here’s a look at the Predicted XI of the two sides:
RCB:
Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Isuru Udana, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
SRH:
David Warner (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan
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