IPL 2017: Mustafizur’s Hyderabad take on Gujarat today

The first outing went along expected lines for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, but Sunday could be a different ball game.

For starters, the 4 pm start could see them on a different wicket at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, unlike the one rolled out for the inaugural when the ball came on nicely to the bat and negated the efforts of their quicker bowlers. It needed the skill and nous of Bhuvneshwar Kumar to come up with yorkers at will to put the brakes on the Royal Challengers Bangalore, while Ben Cutting`s splendid piece of work in the field changed the game for the hosts.

"It`s a concern when we get a very good wicket to bat on. If that run out didn`t happen, anything could have happened," reckoned SRH skipper David Warner with reference to the run out of Kedar Jadhav and how the dice is loaded in favour of batsmen on true wickets. The 35-run win on the opening night has added to their confidence and it`s unlikely that the hosts would change personnel - especially with Mustafizur Rahman still not available - against the Gujarat Lions, who were mauled by the Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday.

That they scored 183 with only skipper Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik and Brendon McCullum firing in a top heavy batting line-up that also includes Jason Roy, Aaron Finch and Dwayne Smith would not be lost on the Sunrisers, who were well served by their batsmen against RCB.

Shikhar Dhawan batted with more freedom, Moises Henriques paced the innings beautifully and Yuvraj Singh gave a glimpse of better things to come, but more importantly, unlike last year, when dot balls dotted their innings, all their batsmen have been able to find gaps in the field. The result was that they added 119 runs in the second half of their innings with even the likes of Deepak Hooda and Cutting furthering the team`s cause.

Source: Times of India