What

In the second Southern Derby of VIVO IPL 2019, Sunrisers Hyderabad will play host to Royal Challengers Bangalore in Match 11.

Sunrisers Hyderabad will be riding high on confidence after registering their highest run-chase in the IPL against the Rajasthan Royals on Friday night. Despite facing a steep target of 199, Sunrisers bossed the run-chase from the very beginning. Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s form the ball – particularly in the death overs, and the fifth bowler’s quota of four overs are the two areas the Sunrisers need to address; the team management will be hopeful those problems can fix themselves as the season rolls on.

Royal Challengers meanwhile are looking for their first points of the season; they had a forgettable season opener against Chennai Super Kings, but put on a much-improved performance against the Mumbai Indians on Thursday night. They still ended up losing that match – letting slip a match that was very much in their clutches for the most part of the run-chase.

Only two matches into the season, RCB have already tinkered their batting order. For years, RCB have relied on captain Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers to win them matches. Though there is plenty of ability in their line-up, but RCB are somehow unable to get other players to step up and win matches. Colin de Grandhomme (scores of 4 & 2) and ShimronHetmyer (0 & 5) have contributed very little despite having the opportunity to post big scores. RCB need to address their failing middle order. They also need to start doing the little things; they’ve played two matches so far, and the highest partnership they’ve managed to stitch is 49.

Where

Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad

Previous Match XIs:

Sunrisers Hyderabad:David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Siddarth Kaul, Sandeep Sharma.

Royal Challengers Bangalore:Parthiv Patel, Moeen Ali, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, ShimronHetmyer, Colin de Grandhomme, Shivam Dube, Umesh Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj.

Protagonists

In their two matches this season, David Warner and Jonny Bairstow have stitched together partnerships of 118 and 110. While Warner has been brutal on the opposition bowlers, Bairstow has been happy to play second fiddle and accumulate the runs. A solid start definitely makes things easy for the men to follow, and the Sunrisers will hope the pair can stitch another good partnership.

No matter how many different players they try, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers continue to be RCB’s biggest match-winners. The contest between Kohli and Sandeep Sharma (36 balls, 5 dismissals), and de Villiers and Rashid Khan (9 balls, 2 dismissals) promises to be exciting. 

Among the bowlers, the leg-spinners in both the sides – Rashid Khan (SRH) and Yuzvendra Chahal (RCB) – are the biggest match-winners. Also keep an eye on Umesh Yadav, who has had success against David Warner.

Head to Head in Indian Premier League

Overall: Matches – 12, Sunrisers Hyderabad – 7, Royal Challengers Bangalore – 5.

In Hyderabad: Matches – 6, Sunrisers Hyderabad – 5, Royal Challengers Bangalore – 1.

When these two teams met in Hyderabad last season, RCB needed 12 runs off the final over in their pursuit of 147. Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled a fantastic last over, conceding only 5 runs to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad to a 5-run win.

Trivia

Virat Kohli needs 43 more runs to complete 8000 runs in T20 cricket.

Rashid Khan has won the Man of the Match award in 4 of the 15 IPL matches he has played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium. David Warner has won 7 match awards in the 25 IPL matches he has played at the venue.

Umesh Yadav has bowled 40 balls to David Warner in the IPL; he has dismissed the Australian thrice.