IPL 2019 Match Report : M8 – SRH VS RR: Both teams had their chances in their respective season openers,but lost grip on the contest and ended on the losing side.

Sunrisers posted 181-3, and had pushed KKR into a corner, before Andre Russell pulverised the SRH bowlers and powered his team to a win. The Royals meanwhile were cruising in their run-chase against Kings XI Punjab before they imploded – losing seven wickets for 16 runs to eventually fall short by 14 runs.

The Sunrisers will have a selection problem to address; Kane Williamson, who led them to the title and was named captain for the entire season, becomes available for selection having recovered from a shoulder injury. Who does he replace? Jonny Bairstow, who was involved in a 118-run opening stand, or Shakib al Hasan, who had a poor outing with the ball?

Where the Royals are concerned, it is expected they will field the same side that took the field in the match against Kings XI Punjab.

Team News

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson will be assessed tomorrow but is expected to be available for the game and will lead the side. As a result, Jonny Bairstow could be dropped.

Probable XI: David Warner, Wriddhiman Saha, Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, Siddarth Kaul

Rajasthan Royals: After a bit of a jolt with the ‘mankading’ incident and the collapse that followed, Rajasthan Royals are ‘in a good space’. There are unlikely to make any changes.

Probable XI: Jos Buttler, Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, K Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Dhawal Kulkarni

What they said:

“We bowled really well for 17 overs to put them (KKR) in a position where they needed 17+ an over in the last three overs. That is an exceptional performance. Where they (the bowlers) failed, was just with the execution in the closing overs to Russell. When you are up against someone with such power-hitting ability, you have to get it absolutely right with your plans and execution. For us, it was slightly off, which cost us the game. But overall, for 17 out of 20 overs, we bowled really well.” – Tom Moody, Sunrisers Hyderabad coach, said addressing the death over concerns.

“We did not mention it even once after that day. We all have moved on from that incident. It is time that we focus on the game coming up, it is a big game. Every game is going to be crucial as we all know in a tournament like this. It does not really make any kind of impact on us. We are looking forward to what we can do to win the game tomorrow and the processes that we can do.” – Jaydev Unadkat, Rajasthan Royals pacer, on the Mankading episode.

Head to Head in IPL

Overall: Matches – 9, Sunrisers Hyderabad – 5, Rajasthan Royals – 4.

In Hyderabad: Matches – 2, Sunrisers Hyderabad – 2, Rajasthan Royals – 0.