Hyderabad: One has begun the season with a thumping win, the other with a humiliating loss at home. Sunrisers Hyderabad clearly have the upperhand when they host wimpy Gujarat Lions on Sunday afternoon here.
The Lions have much to ponder after being chased mercilessly by the Kolkata Knights on Friday night. They will need to quickly regroup and roar to protect their territory in the jungle that the IPL surely is. This time it's the Eagles that are hovering, itching to pick and tease as they flaunt their 'King' tags by virtue of being defending champions.
The wounded Lions haven't had much time to recover though. Having travelled all the way down south and then playing the first game up on the day would be taxing for Gujarat, who have the odds stacked against them. They did not practice or hold the customary match-eve press conferenceon Saturday.
On the field, the home side are basking in the sun having got to a smooth start. Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Yuvraj Singh and the other top order batsmen have done well but the others haven't been tested yet. They may not be on Sunday too. At the risk of sounding perverse, the Gujarat Lions couldn't even get to the No.3 batsman in their match against KKR. That should be demoralising for the bowlers as well as fielders who fumbled a few chances with a strong total (183) to defend.
Having conceded a world record chase, the Lions would have a relook at their team composition and will in all probability include allrounder James Faulkner for the game in an attempt to add some teeth to their attack. Losing the versatile Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo — to rest and injury respectively —hasn't helped either.
With the bat, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik and the dangerous Brendon McCullum can be a handful but will need to post a lot more runs on the board to erase the mental scars of the KKR crash. That would mean cracking a compact, encircling Eagle attack. It's in the air.
