The second part of the double header in the Indian Premier League sees two of the lower ranked sides looking to revive their IPL 2021 campaigns when the Sunrisers Hyderabad take on the Punjab Kings in Sharjah.
These two sides head to Sharjah as the bottom two in the IPL 2021 table. The season already looks a forlorn hope for the Sunrisers but a win for the Punjab Kings here would have them right back in the mix for a place in the playoffs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
When you consider how strong the Sunrisers Hyderabad have been over the last four or five seasons, it is very much a surprise that they only have one win to their name from the eight matches they have played this term. What is worse for them is the margin of their defeats with their last three losses coming by seven wickets, 55 runs and eight wickets, which in T20 competition are little short of shellackings. They are barely competitive.
The one thing they do have in their favour is that their victory came against the Punjab Kings when their bowlers delivered the goods and their batsmen got to work to win by nine wickets. That was the sole highlight in an otherwise shambolic season where their batsmen haven’t delivered, although to be fair they haven’t been helped by the fact they are continually one batsman light if not two, and their bowlers have been sporadic with their best form.
Punjab Kings
It looked like the Punjab Kings were going to revive their campaign earlier in the week when they took on the Rajasthan Royals. Often a change of scenery or a break can do a team the world of good and it looked like that was going to be the case for the Punjab outfit but amazingly they snatched defeat not just from the jaws of victory but halfway down the throat of victory, surrendering quite pathetically in the final two overs of that match.
Those kind of agonising defeats tend to linger and that has left the Punjab outfit on six points from nine matches. 14 points might get a playoff spot with a healthy run rate but theirs is not good so unless they find some big wins you sense the Kings are going to need to win out if they are going to be involved when the business end of the campaign comes along. Usually it is their bowlers who need to up their game but the way they failed to get over the line with the bat earlier in the week it is that department that need to come good.
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Key Men
Whenever a team is in something of a rut I always think it needs its captain to come to the party so all eyes will be on Kane Williamson to see what he can deliver here. Technically he is the man a light batting line up should bat around but often wickets fall around him which means he is needed to adapt his game which is when the problems set in.
KL Rahul isn’t just the captain of the Punjab Kings but he is their best batsman by a country mile. This is a high scoring ground so it stands to reason that his team will need the best from him. He delivered in the previous game but didn’t get his team over the line. That is the task in hand here.
Betting
The boundaries let me down on this ground on Friday when they looked to be absolutely cruising in but then out of nowhere the Royal Challengers Bangalore batting just completely stopped and crumpled in a heap leaving us with 37 boundaries in a chase of 40.5 of them in a match where 157 was the winning score. 157 is nowhere near par around here so even if the Royal Challengers had just made it to par this line would have covered comfortably.
Matches involving the Punjab Kings tend to be high scoring because their attack can go round the park but their batsmen are all capable of high quality innings and although the Sunrisers aren’t always the highest scoring team in the league, they do have a number of classy batsmen who if they get in will be taking these boundaries apart. Even players way down the order such as Jason Holder and Rashid Khan can target them which is handy. The line has stayed at 40.5 for this match and so I’ll trust these two can combine for the 41 we should’ve got on Friday.
Tips
Back Over 40.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
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