Mullanpur, April 10 A determined Punjab Kings will take on the star-studded but inconsistent Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League here on Saturday.
Considering their start to the season, PBKS must be disappointed about sharing a point with KKR in their last game due to rain.
Led by Shreyas Iyer, PBKS have come to represent what a winning team should look like, whether it's easily chasing down a total of over 200 against Chennai Super Kings or overcoming former champions Gujarat Titans on the challenging surface of Mullanpur.
They could have been on track for a third consecutive win against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens, with Australian fast bowler Xavier Bartlett causing havoc before heavy rain and a thunderstorm forced them to share a point with the hosts.
As opener-keeper Prabhsimran Singh, fresh off a breakout season of over 500 runs, put it, PBKS are focused on collective success rather than individual pursuit of the Orange or Purple Cap, a mindset reflected in Cooper Connolly's unbeaten 72 against Gujarat Titans and Vijaykumar Vyshak's growing impact with the ball.
However, this cannot be said about Sunrisers Hyderabad, despite their reputation for explosive batting and big totals, they have largely faltered this season due to top-order collapses, as seen against RCB and LSG, when the dangerous opening pair of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma were cheaply dismissed.
Adding to their woes, SRH have seen little impact from players like Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat. The batting efforts of Nitish Kumar Reddy and Heinrich Klaasen were among the few positives for SRH against LSG.
Spinner Harsh Dubey has shown glimpses of brilliance in the powerplay and is expected to continue his form.
Jaydev Unadkat conceded 50 runs in 23 balls in the last game, and the Saurashtra strongman will be eager to make amends. The left-arm pacer had a tough job of defending nine runs in the last over against LSG but was unable to contain the opposition.
Teams:
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Punjab Kings: Shreyas Iyer (c), Arshdeep Singh, Priyansh Arya, Pyla Avinash, Azmatullah Omarzai, Xavier Bartlett, Yuzvendra Chahal, Cooper Connolly, Praveen Dubey, Ben Dwarshuis, Lockie Ferguson, Harnoor Singh, Harpreet Brar, Marco Jansen, Musheer Khan, Vishal Nishad, Mitchell Owen, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Suryansh Shedge, Vishnu Vinod, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Nehal Wadhera, Yash Thakur.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Ishan Kishan (c & wk), Abhishek Sharma, Amit Kumar, Salil Arora, Brydon Carse, Pat Cummins, Harsh Dubey, Krains Fuletra, Travis Head, Praful Hinge, Heinrich Klaasen, Liam Livingstone, Eshan Malinga, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harshal Patel, David Payne, Sakib Hussain, Shivam Mavi, Shivang Kumar, Ravichandran Smaran, Onkar Tarmale, Jaydev Unadkat, Aniket Verma, Zeeshan Ansari.
Match starts at 3:30 PM IST.
