Final call: Sunrisers’ hitmen face Royals’ spin stars for place in final

PTI

Chennai, May 23

The best power-hitters of the IPL — Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma — will face a very different challenge against wily spin twins Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin when Sunrisers Hyderabad take on Rajasthan Royals in a high-octane second Qualifier here tomorrow.

The duo have taken power-hitting to a new level — Head (533 runs at strike-rate of 199.62) and Abhishek (470 at 207.04) have hit 72 sixes apart from 96 boundaries between them.

If that’s not enough, they have a swashbuckler in Heinrich Klaasen (413 runs at 180), who also has 34 sixes to his credit.

But playing on a Chepauk strip, which is usually sticky in nature, will pose a completely different challenge than what is the case at the Kotla or Wankhede.

Here, the ball stops and stroke-makers do have a tough time when it comes to hitting through the line.

Ashwin, who has played all his cricket at this ground, knows the strip like the back of his hand and his form has improved towards the back-end of the tournament.

With the country’s best leg-spinner Chahal for company, RR would be hoping that Head, Abhishek and Klaasen can be dispatched quickly to gain control of the proceedings.

As for their bowling, the onus would once again be on T Natarajan, who has been SRH’s top wicket-taker this season, and playing on his home turf here, he would love to exploit the conditions.

Also, the experienced duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Pat Cummins have a lot to deal with as the former has been wicket-less in his last two games.

As for RR, the side finally ended their five-game winless streak, thanks to the all-round show against RCB.

In batting, the top-order displayed some positive signs, especially Yashasvi Jaiswal who would love to continue the form ahead of the T20 World Cup in the Americas next month.

However, skipper Sanju Samson will have to do better, given that he hasn’t crossed the 20-run mark in the last three contests.

In the middle order, Dhruv Jurel will be under pressure, having failed to enter the double digits in his last two outings.

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