Just have a look on the results of a few matches played late in the tournament and you can easily trace the better cricket from Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab. And Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore qualified last night, even playing nothing impressive recently. But they deserved and accepted the advantage of early wins in the tournament.

 

As Kolkata Knight Riders beat Rajasthan Royals on Sunday, both the teams had to make sure that they would maintain their current run rate anyhow. RCB, as their poor batting form still to be scanned, couldn’t make a big score yesterday, and what they could do best was to slow down Delhi’s run chase. With 16 points in the bag, Delhi qualified and will play Mumbai in the playoffs. RCB have to wait for their opponent,

 

Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Delhi and Bangalore in their last two matches and they got RCB out in just 120. Two comprehensive wins, once batting first and chasing in the next, helped SRH gain a positive net run rate. Playing finally, SRH have not to go for any mathematical calculation and a victory in this contest will take them to playoffs directly. If they fail, it’s Kolkata Knight Riders who will reach the final four with 14 points.

 

Mumbai Indians with 18 points will make the first spot, even they lose today. The result of this match is not going to affect Mumbai Indians. Mumbai have been playing almost same XI, since the very start of the tournament with just a single or couple of changes late in the competition. A number of players are playing every match and it’s their time to have fun in the dug-out.

 

Mumbai will have a lot of changes in their batting unit and with less pressure of points, I think, the new players will also score well. In the bowling group, there must be changes also.

 

With David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha at the top, Sunrisers have enough chance to have a good start. Manish Pandey at No 3 is just furious and must try to exploit Mumbai’s new bowling group. Williamson is a champion to take a game away from you. As I said in RCB vs SRH match preview, the inclusion of Jason Holder has made the lower middle order of Hyderabad very strong. Rashid Khan can bat down the order.

 

Rashid Khan is the game changer in Sunrisers camp and it depends a lot on him. Sandip Sharma with his accuracy doing a good job for Warner. T. Natarajan is very straight while targeting the blockhole. Holder can take the new ball and is a very experienced campaigner to keep the batsmen guessing.

 

Though Sharjah is getting slower and slower as the game progresses, still any side will try to bowl fast. With due coming in the second half, it is better to chase. On losing the toss, you have to project a healthy score well assessing the wicket. Otherwise, it’s tough to defend, as both the teams have a fair number of super strikers.