Sunriser eye hat-trick of wins

Hyderabad: In a welcome change and looking to erase the initial disastrous drubbings Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) is suddenly set for a hat-trick of wins when they take on Kings XI Punjab in their Indian Premier League-9 match at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium (RGICS) here on Saturday.

The morale has been boosted following back-to-back wins against defending champion Mumbai Indians and putting a stop to the win-spree of pool topper Gujarat Lions. A bigger boost for the host is the return to form of southpaw Shikhar Dhawan, whose unbeaten half-century helped them down Gujarat by a whopping ten wickets in Thursday’s away match.

Fellow-opener and in-form batsman David Warner extended his fine run in the middle to swell his tally to 245 runs, which has also ensured him the purple cap. Given that the bowlers are doing well, despite not having Aashish Nehra, Hyderabad has gone in for Aditya Tare, a hard-hitting batsman who is comfortable in any position in the batting order.

Meanwhile, a change of captain has not brought about changes in its fortunes. Like they were on the conclusion of the eighth edition, even now, after one win from four matches, Punjab is languishing at the bottom. Of course, they have some proven imports like David Miller, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Johnson. None has been able to rise to the occasion barring Marsh, who scored a half-century against KKR while Maxwell smashed 32 runs off 14 balls against Pune.

The only player who is living up to expectations is opener Murali Vijay. Johnson, Sandeep Sharma, Mohit Sharma and Axar Patel have all been performing below-par. Until and unless the seniors buck up, it looks like Punjab will be the season’s whipping boys all over again. This is the psychological advantage Sunrisers will look to seize when they cross swords.