PRE MATCH ANALYSIS
Follow UsIt is not the World Test Championship final, they won’t be wearing the whites.
And yet as we build-up towards the four-pointer between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Wankhede on Sunday, it is Virat Kohli and Kane Williamson who find themselves at the center of all debates and discussions. It is certainly not something new, even in T20 cricket, only this time the duo find themselves in the news for the wrong reasons.
As of this very moment, both SRH and RCB find themselves very much in contention to make the playoffs. The fourth spot is there for the taking, and these two sides are prime contenders to make it to the knockouts. The two teams have, however, managed to put themselves in the position they currently are in not because of Kohli and Williamson, but in spite of them.
Both Kohli and Williamson, prior to the auction, were hand-picked as the first retention by their respective franchises, but so far this season, both the veterans have been actively hurting their respective sides through their batting.
We’re 50+ matches into the 2022 edition and remarkably, Williamson has had a horror of a season. That he’s opening the batting has made things worse for SRH, for it has meant the Sunrisers beginning most of their innings on the back-foot. Williamson has been striking at an eye-watering 79.53 in the powerplay this season, and his inability to get off the blocks quickly played a part in their defeats against CSK and DC. Pooran and Markram were able to nullify Williamson’s negative-impact knocks and carry the team over the line in the 150-160 chases, but the skipper’s form and approach have left the team powerless in high-scoring encounters.
Kohli has not been as bad as Williamson overall, but he still has been very, very poor. Kohli will enter the SRH clash having played two of the slowest knocks of his IPL career. Against Gujarat, he stuttered his way to a 53-ball 58, and his knock eventually ended up costing the side. The former RCB skipper played a poorer knock against the Super Kings (30 off 33 balls) but, unlike the GT clash, RCB ended up on the winning side thanks to fine hands from Mahipal Lomror, Rajat Patidar and Dinesh Karthik.
For the whole season, Kohli and Williamson have been carried by their teammates — with the race for the playoffs heating up, the time has come for the experienced pair to give back to their teams by playing knocks of impact.
Sunrisers need their bowlers (minus Bhuvi) to wake up
The Sunrisers began their campaign with back-to-back losses, and it didn’t take long for people to write them off. But then Williamson’s side staged a comeback like no other, remarkably winning five matches on the bounce. It is true that SRH were lucky enough to have won the toss in each of those five matches, but that period saw their bowlers step up. Big time.
Between April 9 and April 23 — a stretch in which SRH won 5/5 matches — the Sunrisers were, by some distance, the best bowling unit in the competition. They took 42 wickets at an economy of 7.4 and an average of 16.9, remarkably taking a wicket every 13.2 balls. It was during this phase that Umran Malik was unplayable. Everything clicked and the Orange Army, with the ball, were looking unstoppable.
But things have gone downhill for the Sunrisers since bowling out RCB for 68. They’ve conceded 199, 202 and 207 in their last three games and, barring Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the entire bowling unit has been taken to the cleaners.
SRH’s bowling attack was settled during the five-match winning streak, but they’ve since had to drop Marco Jansen following his showings against the Titans and Super Kings, against whom he registered combined figures of 0/101 off 8 overs. Washington Sundar, too, since has been in and out of the side — due to injury — and the DC clash saw the Orange Army field three debutants in Sean Abbott, Shreyas Gopal and Kartik Tyagi.
Unlike a couple of weeks ago, the Sunrisers’ bowling unit is no longer settled. But if Williamson’s side are to snap out of the three-match losing streak they are currently on, they’ll need their bowlers to wake up from their slumber.
Siraj’s form still a concern for RCB
The last game RCB played saw Mohammed Siraj bowl fewer overs than any other RCB bowler. The right-armer conceded 22 off his first 2 overs on a wicket that was not the best of batting pitches, and that was enough for du Plessis to pull the plug and take Siraj out of the attack once and for all.
Thanks to how spin-conducive the Pune wicket was, du Plessis had the option of getting as many as seven overs from Glenn Maxwell and Shahbaz Ahmed. Against CSK, it didn’t matter that Siraj was having an off day.
However, du Plessis will not have the same luxury every single game, and so the fact remains that Siraj’s dwindling form continues to remain a cause for concern for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Siraj is currently in the midst of his worst ever IPL season, and while he’s proved to be a liability at the back end, what’s been noticeable is just how alarmingly ineffective he’s been with the new ball. This season, the 28-year-old has averaged 52 in the powerplay (4 wkts in 11 innings), has conceded at over 9 runs per over and has gone wicketless up-front in as many as 8 innings. In fact, since April 19, Siraj has managed to pick wickets inside the powerplay in only one match, against Rajasthan in Pune.
Josh Hazlewood’s incredible campaign has helped RCB mask Siraj’s failure to an extent, but it’d be unrealistic to expect the New South Welshman to carry the pace attack for the rest of the season. The Royal Challengers need Siraj to salvage his campaign and find some form if they are to make a serious push for the vacant fourth spot.
Possible Playing XI
SRH: Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson (c), Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Shashank Singh, Sean Abbott, Shreyas Gopal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kartik Tyagi, Umran Malik
RCB: Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Mahipal Lomror, Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood
