Captains Shreyas Iyer and Pat Cummins (Photo: X)
Hyderabad: After an all-round performance against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Qualifier 2 the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will take on the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the final clash at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
KKR, who out-powered SRH twice in the tournament, are confident of repeating their performance. While SRH look to seek revenge and lift the trophy for the second time.
Both Hyderabad and Kolkata look strong and balanced on paper.
With the likes of Starc, Harshit Rana, Chakravarthy and Narine the Knight Riders look terrifying in terms of bowling. Whereas the Sunrisers lack the strength in the bowling with Bhuwaneshwar not in form and Mayank Markhande being the only specialist full time spinner. Captain Pat is picking wickets at crucial junctures but is not good with economy.
On the other hand, SRH has a deep and in-form batting order which can compensate for the out of form bowling unit. With Head and Abhishek opening the innings followed by Tripathi, Markram, Klaasen, Shahbaz Ahmed and Samad their batting unit is deep and strong. The KKR also has a good batting line-up but except for Narine, most of their batters were inconsistent this season.
According to reports, the Chepauk Stadium is ditching it's regular black soil pitches which are bowler friendly and is using the red soil for the finals which will benefit the batters.
It is tough to pick a side since both teams have a good line up of batters and bowlers. The SRH are restless while the KKR had a good amount of off-time to prepare for the finals. However, if the reports about the pitch are true then SRH will have an advantage and might clinch their second IPL trophy.
( Source : Deccan Chronicle )
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