The mood is upbeat in the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) camp on the eve of its match against Gujarat Lions (GL) at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday. And, captain David Warner would love to continue the momentum going.
“It (contest) should be a good one and the day games are always hard to cope with. For the last game, the wicket was exceptional. We will have to see how it will be for this game and work out a strategy accordingly,” said Warner ahead of the clash.
If confidence and body language are any hints of a team’s mood, then SRH is on a high. The best part is the form of the big three in the batting line-up — opener Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques and Yuvraj Singh. And, if Warner scores big, the opposition has a daunting task to check the run-flow in what appears to be another perfect T20 wicket full of runs.
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The depth in batting and bowling with perfect balance, makes the defending champion even more formidable on current form.
In bowling, leggie Rashid Khan of Afghanistan brings in the desired variety after his impressive IPL debut against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), taking two crucial wickets.
“It is difficult to pick his googly because he is very quick through the air and lends variety to the attack,” said his team-mate and all-rounder Mohammad Nabi.
With pace in the tried and trusted hands of left-armer Ashish Nehra and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, backed by Henriques and all-rounder Ben Cutting, the spinners can always have the liberty to attack as the pacers have been adept in getting the crucial breakthroughs.
On the other hand, it will be interesting to see how Gujarat Lions, without the services of injured Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo, recovers in time from the drubbing it received at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in its first match in Rajkot.
It is not going to be easy after such a disappointing start and more so against a team which is known to come up with the right balance in all departments.
For the Lions, it is imperative that the big guns like Jason Roy, Brendon McCullum, Raina, Aaron Finch and Dwayne Smith boom as the skipper and the ever-reliable Dinesh Karthik did in the last game.
By all means, it will be a real test to the efficacy of a comparatively inexperienced bowling attack of the Lions when it faces the in-form SRH batting line-up.
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