There are two matches left in the Indian Premier League season with the first of them coming on Friday as we find out who will face the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2024 final on Sunday when the Sunrisers Hyderabad take on the Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2 in Chennai.
This will he the second chance that came the way of the Sunrisers courtesy of them finishing the regular season in the top two. Rajasthan have come through one knockout match to make it this far and will be looking to win another to reach a second final in three years. We should be in for a cracker here.
Sunrisers Hyderabad
The Sunrisers Hyderabad messed up their first chance of making it through to the final on Tuesday when the Kolkata Knight Riders comfortably beat them but they always knew they had this second go up their sleeve and now is the time when they have to be at their best to set up another crack at the Knight Riders at the weekend. There is an aggressive outlook to the Sunrisers which makes them daunting opponents when it goes right, but as we saw on Tuesday, they can be easy prey when they get it slightly wrong.
Sunrisers couldn’t get going with the bat in hand on Tuesday. Once they had lost Travis Head early they were behind the eight ball and although they maintained their aggressive approach, nobody could really come off strongly enough to get them ahead in the game. Each time they threatened to get in front Kolkata had enough to keep them at bay. Hyderabad either need more to go their way here or adopt a slightly smarter approach of getting players in before they go big. Their bowling dictates they need as many runs as they can get but sometimes on a knockout match that total can be lower than usual.
Rajasthan Royals
The Rajasthan Royals might still be wondering how they have come down to needing to win three straight knockout matches to win the title. It looked for much of the season like they were going to cruise into the top two, only for their form to drop off a cliff when they could least afford it. With that in mind, it is very much to their credit that they were able to dust themselves off and come up with the goods in the Eliminator to set up this chance at playing off for glory should they win.
What will have pleased the Royals most about their win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore in that eliminator is the fact that it was a good all-round performance. Winning the toss certainly helped but it wouldn’t have made much difference if they hadn’t bowled well. They did bowl well though and applied pressure from the opening powerplay and restricted Bangalore to a score Ravi Ashwin described as par minus. That score still needed chasing and for a side who hadn’t won this month that wasn’t automatic but they got home with plenty in hand despite the odd late hiccup. That should have them in a great place to launch an attack on this second qualifier match.
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Key Players
Travis Head seems to be the player who dictates the terms by which the Sunrisers Hyderabad roll in this tournament. When he gets away from teams Hyderabad generally win. When he doesn’t they have to work much harder to get in front. They’ll hope he fires here.
Rajasthan needed a hero to come alone in that run chase on Wednesday and Riyan Parag answered the cool with a very good innings that paced the back of it perfectly. He feels like a key player here too.
Betting
I fear a little bit for the Sunrisers Hyderabad here because this might just be the worst venue that this match could have taken place on as far as they are concerned. The ball just doesn’t come onto the bat in Chennai anywhere near as well as it does in pretty much every other ground in the country and most of their batters need the ball coming on so that they can lace it either for four or six. Heinrich Klaasen might be fine because the ground is relatively small but you do fear for the rest.
This match might actually be settled in the Sunrisers powerplay because if Trent Boult or one of the bowlers gets Travis Head early, we have seen that Hyderabad struggle to get on terms with the bat. The other decisive factor could be the spinners. Rajasthan Royals have two world class ones and could pick a third while the Sunrisers spin depth is very slim and on a wicket which usually turns that feels significant. Rajssthan showed they can handle the pressure of knockout cricket on Wednesday whereas I wonder if Hyderabad can turn things around if they fall behind. At odds against I’ll side with a Rajasthan side that was above Hyderabad from the opening day of the season to the last day of the regular part of the event.
Tips
Back Rajasthan Royals to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad for a 3/10 stake at 2.10 with Coral
