SRH vs RR, IPL Match Preview: Sunrisers Hyderabad brace for red-hot Rajasthan Royals

HYDERABAD: The city is bracing for a severe heatwave. Mercury has already breached the 40-mark and is rising. All that, however, will be lost on Vaibhav Sooryavanshi when he takes the field against Sunrisers Hyderabad, who are yet to get their bearings right in this edition of IPL.

Red-hot Rajasthan Royals are the in-form team going into the match at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium on Monday and they owe quite a bit of their success to Sooryavanshi. He had a reputation to maintain coming into this edition and Sooryavanshi is doing it in great style, taking apart bowlers and attacks with the nonchalance of a 15-year-old.

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Thanks to his marauding ways at the top in association with Yasashvi Jaiswal, Rajasthan have shown they are equally good at setting or chasing down totals. Factor in Dhruv Jurel’s calm influence in the middle and it becomes clear why the Rajasthan top three dominate the Orange cap standings. That Sooryavanshi strikes at 266.66 is the reason why Rajasthan hurtle along like a burning train.

Abhishek Sharma also strikes at 218.64, but inconsistently so and that has impacted the Sunrisers, who must have realised by now that last year’s template of a 200-plus total is no longer a safe bet.

From being the envy of the teams for breaching 200 for fun last season – SRH piled up 286/6, the second highest IPL total, in their last encounter against Rajasthan at this venue – the Sunrisers now see the payback is in the same coin. One year is a long time in sport and if anything, IPL is constantly evolving and the Sunrisers posted upwards of 200 thrice this year.

They successfully defended it against Kolkata Knight Riders to win by 65 runs – their only win so far in four matches – and watched as Royal Challengers Bengaluru and more recently, Punjab Kings, made short work of their totals. All of them were away matches for SRH, they were put in on all four instances, including their only match at home against Lucknow Super Giants, when they were undone by Mohammed Shami’s craft.

Ishan Kishan was the hero with his 47-ball 106 in that high-scoring match between the two teams here last season —SRH won by 44 runs. If only the skipper can repeat that innings, it will give the Sun attack, which wears an unsettled look in the absence of Pat Cummins, something to bowl at.