IPL 2022: Sunrisers Hyderabad looks to bounce back against RCB

Bitter-sweet memories of last encounter linger as Kane Williamson-led Sunrisers Hyderabad faces Royal Challengers Bangalore in an IPL fixture.

Like Kane Williamson, RCB’s batting superstar Virat Kohli too has been going through a season to forget.

Sunrisers Hyderabad believes in momentum. When Kane Williamson’s men win, they win serially. When they lose, they lose serially.

After winning five games in a row, they lost the next three. Their last victory came against Royal Challengers Bangalore. The teams face off again, on Sunday at the Wankhede Stadium. Royal Challengers though is in the top four of the IPL table with 12 points, while Sunrisers, on 10 points, will be desperate to break into it as the race for places in the playoffs gets close.

READ: Mumbai Indians out of IPL 2022 playoffs race

When the two sides met a fortnight ago at the Brabourne Stadium, Royal Challengers were bundled out for a mere 68 on way to a nine-wicket defeat. Most of the damage was done by two left-arm seamers Marco Jansen and T. Natarajan who picked up three wickets each. Since then the Tamil Nadu bowler got injured while the South African became too expensive.

Umran Malik, too, proved expensive in the last two matches, but his explosive pace has also won games for Sunrisers this season. The captain’s form with the bat has been a worry, but Abhishek Sharma, Aiden Markram and Nicholas Pooran have been amongst runs.

Like Williamson, RCB’s batting superstar Virat Kohli too has been going through a season to forget. But the likes of skipper Faf du Plessis and Dinesh Karthik have had good outings with the bat. The franchise has a balanced attack, in which spinner Wanindu Hasaranga and seamer Harshal Patel have been the most successful.