It will be quite a sight watching the red hot Umran Malik steaming in and delivering thunderbolts at the in-form Dinesh Karthik. It will be raw pace versus innovation and skill when Sunrisers Hyderabad meets Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Brabourne Stadium on Saturday.
RCB has 10 points from 7 matches and Sunrisers, 8 from 6.
The surface at the Brabourne Stadium has offered good carry and seam movement for the pacemen. And Sunrisers has the swing of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the speed of Umran, the left-arm control of Marco Jansen, and T. Natarajan’s [another left-armer] brave yorkers.
READ|Ricky Ponting in quarantine, to miss DC v RR match
It remains to be seen if Washington Sundar of parsimonious off-spin and elegant left-handed strokeplay has recovered from a split webbing.
And a batting line-up comprising skipper Kane Williamson, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran has firepower.
READ|Dhoni, the IPL finisher and master of last-over heists
For RCB, Karthik's inspirational form has been unreal. Surfacing in the lower middle order, he has 210 runs at a strike-rate of 205.88 having been dismissed just once in seven innings.
Faf du Plessis, an able skipper, has pulled his weight at the top of the order. Their contributions have enabled RCB make light of Virat Kohli’s ordinary form. Glenn Maxwell remains the X factor.
The RCB attack is a distinct threat with the swing and cut of Mohammed Siraj and Josh Hazlewood, the changes in pace of Harshal Patel and the variety of leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga.
The clash promises to be intriguing.
