What

The Rajasthan Royals will re-join the VIVO IPL 2018 bandwagon after a six-day break when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 28. The Royals have three wins and as many defeats, while the Sunrisers have five wins from seven matches and occupy the second place in the standings.

Before their break, the Royals had defeated the defending champions Mumbai Indians in Jaipur. Sunrisers Hyderabad, despite underwhelming performances with the bat, still walked away with four points from their last two matches after they successfully defended totals of 118 & 132.

That the Sunrisers were able to win their last two matches without Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Billy Stanlake paints a very good picture of the team’s bowling resources. However, captain Kane Williamson and coach Tom Moody should be worried about the dismal showing of the batsmen; against MI, Sunrisers were bowled out for 118 in 18.4 overs, and most recently against Kings XI Punjab, they only managed a below-par 132-6. The team needs to infuse a little more aggression at the top; one option available to them is to include the English batsman Alex Hales at the top.The other alternative is to rope in ShreevatsGoswami, the Bengal wicketkeeper-batsman who was in fine form with the bat in the domestic T20s earlier this year, and give him the licence to go hammer and tongs early on.

It took the Rajasthan Royals a while to figure out a combination which could consistently deliver the goods for them. The inclusion of Jofra Archer, together with Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Heinrich Klaasen, means RR now have four quality overseas players in their line-up. Rahul Tripathi returns to the top of the order – a position where he carved a name for himself last season, and he along with Ajinkya Rahane make for a potent-looking opening combination.

When

29 April 2018, 1600Hrs (IST)

Where

Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

Impact Batsmen

Sanju Samson is Rajasthan Royals’ top run-getter this season – by some distance. The 23-year old, when in flow, is a joy to watch; in a format where batsmen tend to bludgeon the ball, Samson has scored the bulk of his 239 runs by merely caressing and timing the ball. More often than not, Samson has put the sweet spot of his willow in front of the ball and the resultant follow through has either found the gap or sent the ball into orbit.

Ajinkya Rahane too has batted with a new vigour; where he would score at just over a run-a-ball in previous seasons, this season Rahane’sstrike-rate reads a healthy 133. The RR captain has scored runs every time he has walked to the crease – though he will be disappointed at not converting those starts to big scores; his highest score so far this innings is 45.

Shikhar Dhawan, SRH’s biggest match-winner, has had two quiet innings since returning to the team after recovering from the blow he took this his left elbow. The left-hander has been in outstanding form this season and SRH need him to set the tempo at the top. Skipper Kane Williamson has been striking it well too – and like Sanju Samson, he too has relied a lot on timing and on finding the gaps; the Kiwi batsman is his team’s top run-getter, and he will look at leading by example yet again.

Impact Bowlers

There were lots of expectations of Jofra Archer, after the Rajasthan Royals paid INR 7.2 million at the pre-season auction. An injury delayed his initiation into the IPL, but when he took the field, Archer justified the pre-tournament expectations right away – bowling quick and picking up 3 wickets in his maiden IPL outing.

Kane Williamson has a dream bowling attack – every bowler in the team has contributed to the team’s cause when handed the ball. Barring the two matches against Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings, the Sunrisers bowlers have picked up at least 8 opposition wickets in each of their remaining five matches. If he returns to the XI, Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be the spearhead of the attack, while Rashid Khan can be expected to test the Royals middle-order – largely comprising overseas players – with his bagful of tricks.

Team Head to Head

Overall: Matches – 8, Rajasthan Royals won – 4, Sunrisers Hyderabad won – 4

When these two teams met earlier this season, Sunrisers Hyderabad registered an emphatic 9-wicket win. At the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad, the SRH bowlers restricted the Royals to 125-9, after which Shikhar Dhawan (78*) and Kane Williamson (36*) stitched together an unbeaten 121-run partnership to power SRH home in 15.5 overs.

Trivia

Since conceding a total of 104 runs in consecutive matches against KXIP & CSK, Rashid Khan has turned in incredible figures of 2-11 and 3-19 in his following two matches.

The Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad are the teams with the lowest boundary percentages this season; while RR have scored only 50.26% of their runs through boundaries, SRH’s corresponding number stands at 51.61%.

What Next

For Rajasthan Royals: Away fixture against Delhi Daredevils, 2 May 2018.

For Sunrisers Hyderabad: Home fixture against Delhi Daredevils, 5 May 2018.