Hyderabad: The young Delhi Daredevils batsmen, striving hard to keep the team afloat, face a stern test when they face Sunrisers Hyderabad’s formidable bowling attack on Saturday night.

Just like the previous editions, the Daredevils had a bad start to the campaign and are standing on the verge of elimination.

The Delhi outfit is currently placed sixth with just three wins out of nine games. They cannot afford to slip any further if they wish to make it to the next stage.

They have, however, looked better under young Shreyas Iyer’s leadership. The Daredevils got back to winning ways, beating Rajasthan Royals in their last game at home ground on Wednesday.

Young Prithvi Shaw, skipper Iyer and Rishabh Pant have been the team’s batting mainstays. But the team would also want its foreign recruits Colin Munro and Glenn Maxwell to fire.

SRH’s batting unit needs to step up

SRH, on the other hand, are sitting pretty at the top with 12 points from eight games.

The six wins of Sunrisers have mainly been due to their bowlers, who have defended a string of low scores.

The Hyderabad side boasts of probably the best bowling attack in the ongoing IPL, comprising Siddharth Kaul, Rashid Khan, Sandeep Sharma, Basil Thampi besides all-rounders Shakib Al Hasan and Mohammed Nabi. Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s absence hasn’t affected the hosts’ bowling attack.

In their last game here, SRH bundled out formidable Kings XI Punjab for just 119 in 19.2 overs while defending a target of 132.

Last week while defending a modest target of 152 the Hyderabad bowlers halted Rajasthan Royals’ chase at 140 in 20 overs.

Captain Kane Williamson expects Bhuvneshwar to be fit for tomorrow’s game.

While Williamson has been the batting mainstay, SRH would hope their other batsmen, including Manish Pandey, Wriddhiman Saha, Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan, also deliver in the remaining games.

Squads

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (C ), Shikhar Dhawan, Manish Pandey, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wriddhiman Saha, Siddharth Kaul, Deepak Hooda, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma, Yusuf Pathan, Shreevats Goswami, Ricky Bhui, Basil Thampi, T Natarajan, Sachin Baby, Bipul Sharma, Mehdi Hasan, Tanmay Agarwal, Alex Hales, Carlos Brathwaite, Rashid Khan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Nabi and Chris Jordan.

Delhi Daredevils: Shreyas Iyer (C), Rishabh Pant, Glenn Maxwell, Gautam Gambhir, Jason Roy, Colin Munro, Mohammed Shami, Amit Mishra, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Daniel Christian, Jayant Yadav, Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Trent Boult, Manjot Kalra, Abhishek Sharma, Sandeep Lamichhane, Naman Ojha, Sayan Ghosh, Liam Plunkett, Junior Dala.

Head to head

Overall: Matches – 10, Sunrisers Hyderabad won – 6, Delhi Daredevils won – 4

Key stats

  • In the four matches Bhuvneshwar Kumar played, SRH picked up a total of 23 wickets while conceding 638 runs (27.74 runs per wicket). In the four matches Bhuvneshwar Kumar has missed, SRH have picked up 34 wickets while conceding 493 runs (14.50 runs per wicket).
  • Kane Williamson has contributed 27.43% of the runs scored by Sunrisers Hyderabad this season. Among players who have played more than one match this season, only one player has contributed more to his team – Chris Gayle, to KXIP’s total.
  • Delhi Daredevils is the only IPL team against who Rashid Khan doesn’t have a wicket; he went wicket-less in both matches against them last season.