Two unlikely sides to be fighting for the playoffs at the beginning of the season meet in the Indian Premier League on Thursday when the Sunrisers Hyderabad host the Delhi Daredevils in another huge match in this tournament.
Sunrisers aren’t just fighting for the playoffs, they actually have every chance of making it into the qualifier to begin the postseason rather than playing no lose cricket going into the end of season showdown. Delhi dropped out of the playoffs on Wednesday when Mumbai saw off Bangalore so they need to win too. This one is beautifully set up.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
The Sunrisers made history in this tournament in their last match against the Rising Pune Supergiants in that they were the first and only side to opt to bat first and successfully defend a total. When you think this is match 42 that is quite an amazing achievement.
The reason for that has been the class of their bowling attack. If Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ashish Nehra don’t get you at the top of the innings then Mustafizur Rahman, Barinder Sran or Moises Henriques most probably will. If that doesn’t work Yuvraj’s spin could come into play. They are formidable with the ball.
Delhi Daredevils
This young Delhi side have been a joy to watch for much of the season but like a lot of young sides in sport often do they have just started to find the going a little tough recently and they will want to arrest their slide here. They need to.
The form of Sam Billings, while good for English cricket, might not be the best thing for Delhi because it leaves them unbalanced especially with Quinton de Kock a certainty to play, and rightly so. That means only two of JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, Carlos Brathwaite and Chris Morris can play.
Team news
It would be foolish to expect any team changes from the Sunrisers for this match. They are on a real roll at the minute and unless there is a late injury I’m expecting them to be unchanged.
Delhi’s team line up will be interesting after a couple of defeats. I would imagine they will want Imran Tahir and Chris Morris both to play but that means leaving JP Duminy or Sam Billings out so that will be tough.
Form
Sunrisers Hyderabad: LLWWWLWWWW
Delhi Daredevils: LWWWLWWLL
Head to head: Sunrisers Hyderabad 5-1 Delhi Daredevils
In Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad 1-0 Delhi Daredevils
Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium
This is the final match of the season on this ground. After this the Sunrisers will be on the road until the end of the tournament. There have been six matches here so far with the chasing side winning five out of those matches although most of the chasing has been done with plenty to spare so that isn’t necessarily a negative on the pitch.
The boundaries here are pretty big and they take a bit of biffing to clear them. With the quality of the bowling attacks on show in this match it would be a big surprise if this is overly high scoring but if it is you would think that plays into the hands of the home side.
Betting
I often think momentum is a big thing in this format of the game and it is the Sunrisers Hyderabad who have that and so I’m with them here. Delhi haven’t played since the weekend and have lost their last two while the Sunrisers are bang in form.
The Daredevils have relied a lot on their opening pairing in the last few matches but they’ll do well to get much change out of the Sunrisers’ new ball attack and while Zaheer Khan has bowled well in this tournament he hasn’t always been backed up. Indeed it is usually in the second half of the innings that Delhi start restricting sides.
Whether they can do that against this Sunrisers side remains to be seen but when you look at what Delhi will be facing themselves at the death they are going to need to get ahead of the game as early as possible.
No matter whether they bat first or second that won’t be easy against this gun Hyderabad bowling attack and with Yuvraj now starting to come to the party with the bat this side are getting stronger and stronger. I’m right with the hosts here.
Tips
Back Sunrisers Hyderabad to beat Delhi Daredevils for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Betfred
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