What

The Rajasthan Royals will look to make their way up the ladder and get closer to the top-half of the table when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 45 of VIVO IPL 2019.

The Royals were poor in the first twenty days of the season when they won just one of six matches; they should have won many more matches, but they just couldn’t cling on to the decisive moments. But in the last fortnight, with their backs to the wall, they have clinched the important moments and have three close wins from five matches. The equation for the Royals hasn’t changed in a long time –  they need to win all their matches to stand a chance of progressing to the playoffs.

Sunrisers Hyderabad have had an up-and-down season and currently complete the top four with ten points. They began the season well winning three of their first four matches, slumped in the middle weeks losing three consecutive matches, but have established momentum once again. They’ve won two of their last three matches, and it was only Shane Watson’s brilliant batting that deprived them of points in their previous match in Chennai. In an ideal world, the Sunrisers would want to win all their remaining four matches and give themselves the opportunity of finishing in the top two; three wins should be sufficient to secure a top-four spot, while two more wins would mean they’d rely on other teams’ results.

Both teams have been hit by the departure of their World Cup-bound players. The Rajasthan Royals are the most hit; they lost the services of Jos Buttler a couple of matches ago, and starting this match Jofra Archer and Ben Stokes will be unavailable too. Archer’s absence will be a big void for the Royals to fill; he was the team’s best pace bowler by some distance, and even chipped in with a match-winning cameo in the run-chase in Kolkata on Thursday night. The player exodus – which has now left the Royals with only five overseas players to choose from – was part of the script from the very beginning, and it remains to be seen how the Royals cope with the situation at this critical juncture in the tournament.

The Sunrisers, meanwhile, must fill the void caused by Jonny Bairstow’s departure. The wicketkeeper-batsman was a significant contributor to the team’s success not only individually, but as one half of a prolific opening pair with David Warner. The New Zealand opener Martin Guptill has been waiting for an opportunity, and he could get his first outing, while one of Wriddhiman Saha or Shreevats Goswami will don the gloves behind the stumps.

When

27 April 2019, 8pm IST

Where

Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

Previous Match XIs:

Rajasthan Royals: Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, Riyan Parag, Stuart Binny, Shreyas Gopal, Jofra Archer, Jaydev Unadkat, Varun Aaron, Oshane Thomas.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Vijay Shankar, Yusuf Pathan, Shakib al Hasan, Deepak Hooda, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Sandeep Sharma.

Protagonists

The three dependable players in the Rajasthan Royals batting line-up are Ajinkya Rahane, Steve Smith and Sanju Samson. Rahane has batted with freedom since being relieved of captaincy, and RR will want him to continue scoring runs like he did in the last couple of matches. In his first nine innings this season, Rahane scored 213 runs at a strike-rate of 130.67, but in the last two innings – after being relieved of captaincy – he has scored 139 runs at a strike-rate of 165.47.

Sanju Samson oozes with talent and class, and the Royals will expect more than ‘wow’ shots and cameos from him; a second-highest score of 35 doesn’t do justice to all the ability the 24-year old possesses.

In the absence of Bairstow, there will be additional responsibility on Warner’s shoulders. The left-hander has been in scintillating form this season; he has been a picture of consistency, and not surprisingly holds the Orange Cap for being the top run-getter this season.

Warner will need support from his teammates, and Sunrisers will expect Manish Pandey (who celebrated his return to the team with a fluent 83 not out in the previous match) and Vijay Shankar to put their hands up.

On the bowling front, the leg-spinners on both sides will have a huge role to play – given the big boundaries at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium; keep a close watch on the two extremely shrewd leg-spinners – Shreyas Gopal and Rashid Khan. Oshane Thomas will be another bowler who could have a big impact on the result of the match; the big Jamaican was impressive on his IPL debut and generally bowled the back-of-length deliveries at good speeds, which batsmen found hard to score off.

Head to Head in Indian Premier League

Overall: Matches – 10, Rajasthan Royals – 4, Sunrisers Hyderabad – 6.

Trivia

Virender Sehwag (in 2012), Jos Buttler (in 2018) and David Warner (this season) currently share the record for the most consecutive half-centuries in the IPL – all three batsmen have scored 5 consecutive half-centuries. If Warner scores 50 or more in this match, he will have set a new record with 6 consecutive half-centuries.

The last five matches played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium have been won by the team chasing.

The Rajasthan Royals are yet to win a match when they’ve batted first this season; they are 0-4 when they’ve had the chance to set a target. Sunrisers Hyderabad have only a marginally better record; they have a 1-3 win-loss record when they’ve batted first this season.

If Kane Williamson captains Sunrisers Hyderabad and Steve Smith captains the Rajasthan Royals, it will be the first time since 14 May 2017 that both competing teams would have named overseas players as captain.