Mohali, April 27 (IANS) Defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will aim to consolidate their stay in their top three positions of the Indian Premier League (IPL) standings when they take on Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) in an away game at the I.S. Bindra Stadium here on Friday.
With just three wins from seven matches, the home side are currently placed fifth, one short of where they would at least like to be at the end of the league format.
The David Warner-led Hyderabad have won four of eight games so far and have shared the points in a rain-abandoned outing against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday.
In their home match against Punjab this season, Hyderabad secured a five-run win while defending a modest total of 159 runs.
Hyderabad will once again hope their openers Warner (235 from 7 games) and Shikhar Dhawan (282 from 7 games) score the bulk of runs while the middle order comprising Moises Henriques, Yuvraj Singh, Naman Ojha, Deepak Hooda play the long handle when the situation demands.
The visitors have an equally potent bowling attack, with Purple Cap holder medium pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar (16 wickets) and young Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan (10 wickets) leading the department.
On the other hand, Kings XI Punjab will be hoping for another sublime score from opener Hashim Amla, who can take the attack to the opposition camp.
KXIP scored a near-200 total (198) against the Mumbai Indians with Amla scoring a terrific hundred and skipper Glenn Maxwell also hitting some lusty blows. In the middle order, David Miller, Wriddhiman Saha, Shaun Marsh and all-rounder Axar Patel can smash the bowlers all around the park.
The hosts will, however, need to rethink on their bowling strategy with the likes of medium pacers Sandeep Sharma and Mohit Sharma failing to provide the early breakthroughs although Axar, with his left-arm spin has been economical in the middle overs.
Squads:
Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (Captain), Tanmay Agarwal, Ricky Bhui, Bipul Sharma, Ben Cutting, Shikhar Dhawan, Eklavya Dwivedi, Moises Henriques, Deepak Hooda, Chris Jordan, Siddharth Kaul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ben Laughlin, Abhimanyu Mithun, Mohammad Nabi, Mohammed Siraj, Mustafizur Rahman, Ashish Nehra, Naman Ojha (WK), Rashid Khan, Vijay Shankar, Barinder Sran, Pravin Tambe, Kane Williamson, Yuvraj Singh.
Kings XI Punjab: Glenn Maxwell (Captain), David Miller, Manan Vohra, Hashim Amla, Shaun Marsh, Armaan Jaffer, Martin Guptill, Eoin Morgan, Rinku Singh, Sandeep Sharma, Arman Jaffer, Anureet Singh, Mohit Sharma, K.C. Cariappa, Pradeep Sahu, Swapnil Singh, T Natrajan, Matt Henry, Varun Aaron, Axar Patel, Marcus Stoinis, Gurkeerat Mann, Rahul Tewatia, Darren Sammy, Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Nikhil Naik, Ishant Sharma.
