Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad currently occupy the bottom two places in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Table and will be keen to start moving upwards as the two square up for a match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium tomorrow.
In the last season, both teams shared the honors as they won one match each. The first match was a low-scoring affair with Punjab posting a modest total which looked like the Sunrisers could chase down easily but ended up 12 runs short. Next time around the Hyderabad team played with a vengeance winning by a mammoth 69 runs.
With Hyderabad yet to win a game, could they record their first of the tournament? Or will Punjab claim victory to add more misery to the losing team?
Match Toss Time: 15:00 Local (09:30 GMT)
Match Start Time: 15:30 Local (10:00 GMT)
Match Venue: MA Chidambram, Chennai
Head to Head
Matches Played: 16, PBKS: 5, SRH: 11
Weather Conditions
Ideal conditions for cricket as partly sunny skies are expected throughout the day but no chances of a downpour. With temperatures expected to be hovering around 27 - 34 degrees celsius and humidity at its peak is likely to touch the 66% mark.
Pitch
As we have seen in recent matches batting isn't a strong point as it can get heard to score runs on this slow wicket, with the oddball staying low. Chasing can get tough, with teams preferring to bat first. Spinners have found most joy with the pitch in Chepauk helping them to a great extent, with less swing available pacers with the slow ball variation can find success too.
Team News
After losing a couple of matches the Punjab management would be keen on making few changes as most of the batting has revolved around skipper KL Rahul. Nicholas Pooran has failed to perform in all the matches and can be replaced by Dawid Malan or Moises Henriques. Pacer Riley Meredith who has gone for runs without finding much success between the wickets will face competition in the name of Chris Jordan.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad has struggled with their combinations as they are yet to find a spot for kiwi national Kane Williamson. With David Warner, Jonny Bairstow and Rashid Khan occupying the three foreign spots, the fourth spot has often been occupied as an all-rounder or bowling option. The Sunriser middle order is also inexperienced with the management being tempted to offer Kedar Jhadav a chance.
Probable Playing XI
Punjab Kings (PBKS): KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Shahrukh Khan, Jalaj Saxena, Jhye Richardson, Mohammed Shami, Riley Meredith, Arshdeep Singh.
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH): David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Virat Singh/, Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Khaleel Ahmed.
Must Picks
Jonny Bairstow stands in blistering form, blasting his way through the powerplay overs scoring the quick runs. KL Rahul though at a much slower pace has scored runs consistently. Rashid Khan and Arshadeep Singh has to be the other must picks.
PBKS vs SRH Fantasy team
Captain and Vice-Captain Picks
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