The Indian Premier League moves back to Chennai on Sunday as two sides who will be aiming to have strong title challenges this season meet when the Sunrisers Hyderabad do battle with the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Both these sides look strong heading into the tournament and you get the impression that it will be just the finer margins that settle a match between two teams who probably built their squads for good batting decks rather than this slower one.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
The Sunrisers Hyderabad set out on their campaign knowing that they are the only team in the competition that have reached the play-offs in each of the last five seasons, a run which they will look to extend this term at the very least. They have often ridden the back of a wonderful bowling attack to get the job done in recent seasons but at the same time there has clearly been an intense effort to add more firepower to their batting, which is a trend of head coach Trevor Bayliss.
One issue the Sunrisers could have is that a lot of their leading batsmen all want to play at the top of the order so whether they can find the sufficient batting at the end of the innings without taking anything away from the depth of options they have with the ball remains to be seen. The other issue they have is with an overseas captain it leaves them short of options in terms of balancing their side how they might want to.
Kolkata Knight Riders
It is now three years since the Kolkata Knight Riders make it to the latter stages of the competition so their immediate aim must be to push for a top four finish. When you look at the talent that has been at their disposal in recent times it must be said that they have drastically underachieved for the last couple of seasons. That has cost Diniesh Karthik the captaincy role and although Eoin Morgan is one of the best captains in world cricket, being an overseas player he limits their options somewhat.
The big problem has been their inability to stem the flow of runs against them, especially in the middle overs. In their successful years the likes of Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav would have teams tied up knots but their demise with the ball has mirrored that of the team. You fear for the Knight Riders if they can’t find some tidy spin in the middle overs and while they always have Andre Russell to get them out of holes, they have to strategize better than that.
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Key Players
Bhuvneshwar Kumar was borderline unplayable at times in the recent series between India and England and against a Kolkata Knight Riders side who like to express themselves from the go with the bat, his new ball spell could be a key deciding factor in the outcome of the match.
Pat Cummins was extremely economical for the Kolkata Knight Riders last season but didn’t possess the amount of wickets he would have wanted. He will open the bowling against one of the best opening partnerships in the competition here so Kolkata would seriously benefit from an early wicket or two from him.
Betting
I’m finding it hard to go against the Sunrisers Hyderabad here. We saw on Friday that Chennai is a ground where the bowlers are probably going to win you the matches and their attack stands up to anything in the competition. The other thing you need here is a bit of nous with the bat and a willingness to knock it around and build an innings, finding gaps and running hard and that is exactly what this Sunrisers side are all about.
The flip side of that is you’ll go a long way to find a better captain than Eoin Morgan but a captain is generally only as good as the players available to him and I look down the list of spin options and you’re probably looking at Harbhajan and Shakib as the main options. The Sunrisers will know all about Shakib with him having been in their squad for a while, and Harbhajan is no secret these days. Kolkata’s batting is more of a crash bang wallop one rather than a patient push hard and run well one. It all signifies that the Sunrisers should be the ones to open their campaign up with a win.
Tips
Back Sunrisers Hyderabad to beat Kolkata Knight Riders for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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