Kings XI Punjab take on defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad at Mohali on Friday. Punjab, who beat Gujarat Lions in their previous clash, will look to tame Hyderabad at home. However, their record at home against Hyderabad is miserable. They have played three matches and have lost all of them. So for Glenn Maxwell, a win at home against his teammate David Warner means they are heading in the right direction.

The visitors are placed third with nine points and clearly have the momentum against Punjab. Punjab, who have managed to win just three of their seven games, are fifth with six points. A win will propel them to the fourth spot. Hyderabad’s previous clash against Bangalore was washed out and hence are on nine points.

Punjab have to play four matches from April 28 to May 9 and will look to exploit the home advantage. In their first clash this season, Hyderabad secured a five-run win while defending a modest total of 159 runs. Manan Vohra’s 50-ball 95 run knock was overshadowed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s magical spell of 4-0-19-5. Openers David Warner (235 runs from seven games) and Shikhar Dhawan (282 from seven games) have been scoring the bulk of runs and would look to maintain their good form.

Time: 8 pm

Venue: IS Bindra Stadium, Mohali

TV: Sony Max, Sony Six, Sony ESPN and their HD channels

Head-to-head

Played: 9

Kings XI Punjab: 2

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 7

In Mohali: 3

Kings XI Punjab: 0

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 3

Sunrisers Hyderabad

  • Sunriser captain David Warner loves batting against Kings XI. In the IPL he has scored 617 runs in 14 innings at a strike-rate of 143.15, including fifty-plus scores in his last five innings.
  • Sunrisers Hyderabad have lowest boundary percentage amongst all teams. They have scored only 54.97% of their runs through boundaries. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad squad: David Warner(Captain), Tanmay Agarwal, Ricky Bhui, Bipul Sharma, Ben Cutting, Shikhar Dhawan, Eklavya Dwivedi, Moises Henriques, Deepak Hooda, Chris Jordan,Siddharth Kaul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ben Laughlin, AbhimanyuMithun, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammed Siraj, Mustafizur Rahman,Ashish Nehra, Naman Ojha (wk), Rashid Khan, Vijay Shankar,Barinder Sran, Pravin Tambe, Kane Williamson and Yuvraj Singh.

“We have to click as a unit and deliver the goods in the bowling as well as in the batting department. It was unfortunate that rain spoiled the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore and it had to be abandoned. We have done well in the previous matches, barring the game against Pune Supergiant. Dhoni bhai snatched that game from us. We are backing our skills against Kings XI Punjab and hoping to record a win,” said Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Kings XI Punjab

  • Kings XI Punjab have won only 3 of their last 11 matches at the IS Bindra Stadium in Mohali. They aren’t Kings at home.
  • The average first innings total in IPL 2016 matches at the IS Bindra Stadium was 168.
  • KXIP are the only team to have not picked up a wicket by means of a run out this season. Sunrisers Hyderabad have dismissed 5 batsmen by means of a run out, the highest.

Kings XI Punjab squad: Glenn Maxwell (capt), David Miller, Manan Vohra, Hashim Amla, Shaun Marsh, Armaan Jaffer, Martin Guptill, Eoin Morgan, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Arman Jaffer, Anureet Singh, Mohit Sharma, KC Cariappa, Pradeep Sahu, Swapnil Singh, T Natrajan, Matt Henry, Varun Aaron, Axar Patel, Marcus Stoinis, Gurkeerat Mann, Rahul Tewatia, Darren Sammy, Wriddhiman Saha, Nikhil Naik, Ishant Sharma.

“Out of the remaining seven matches we will have to win 4-5, only then can we qualify for the playoffs. What is more important than the win is the process to achieve that, which is playing good cricket in all departments. In the last match, we showed that,” said Virender Sehwag, KXIP’s Head of cricket of operations.