Sunrisers Hyderabad may well aim to better their highest total in the IPL (287/3), given the nature of the Hyderabad pitch, when they face Lucknow Super Giants at home on Thursday.
Even the term belter seems to be an understatement considering how the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium surface behaved during the Sunrisers’ opener against RajasthanRoyals last Sunday. The margin of error for the bowlers was minimal, complementing the explosiveness of the Sunrisers’ batters.
For Rishabh Pant and team, they can only hope the track behaves at least a bit differently since it’s a 7.30pm start. Besides, the Super Giants have the option of including seasoned pacer Avesh Khan in the playing XI in place of Prince Yadav.
Avesh joined the squadon Wednesday followinghis recovery from rightknee trouble.
That the Lucknow players will not be going into the game with too good a frame of mind is another advantage for Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, and the like. Assuming the conditions in Hyderabad won’t be much different, Super Giants spinners Ravi Bishnoi, Manimaran Siddharth and Digvesh Rathi will need to play an important role as that’s one way to stifle the Sunrisers’ power-packed batting line-up.
On top of everything, skipper Pant needs to get his game right in terms of both batting and glovework. His struggle to get going with the bat initially and errors behind the stumps hurt the Super Giants against the Delhi Capitals on Monday, a game they should have won.
