In-form Sunrisers eye first away win
Match facts
Rising Pune Supergiant v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Pune, April 22, 2017
Start time 16000 local (1030 GMT)
Head to head
This season: The two sides will be meeting for the first time in IPL 2017
Overall: Both sides have won one game apiece
In the news
These two teams have been on opposite ends of the scheduling coming into the game. Rising Pune Supergiant have had a five-day break to rejuvenate themselves after a win against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru, while Sunrisers Hyderabad will be playing their third game in six days.
Pune will be buoyed by the performances of their Indian players - Rahul Tripathi, Manoj Tiwary, Shardul Thakur and Jaydev Unadkat - in their win over Royal Challengers that broke a three-match losing streak. Meanwhile, Kane Williamson's exceptional knock at No. 3 in his first game of the season could mean more time on the bench for Ben Cutting. While Sunrisers are sitting pretty with four wins, they would do well to note their two losses have come away.
The likely XIs
Rising Pune Supergiant: 1 Ajinkya Rahane, 2 Rahul Tripathi, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Manoj Tiwary, 5 MS Dhoni, 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Dan Christian, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Jaydev Unadkat, 10 Imran Tahir, 11 Ankit Sharma
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Moises Henriques, 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 Deepak Hooda, 7 Naman Ojha, 8 Bipul Sharma, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10, Rashid Khan, 11 Siddarth Kaul
Strategy punt
- Rising Pune have shunted Manoj Tiwary up and down the order. In their previous game, one of small margins, in Bengaluru, his 11-ball 27 at No.7 proved to be the difference of at least 20 runs to the team's total. With MS Dhoni continuing to struggle, his strike rate of 87.14 is the worst among those who have faced 50-plus deliveries this season, the team management can perhaps push up Tiwary, who is striking them close to 161 per 100 balls this season, which is significantly higher than his career strike rate of 116, to No. 4.
- With three left-handers potentially in Sunrisers' top five - David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj Singh - Rising Pune could be better off continuing with Dan Christian, who offers slow variations in addition to his seam-ups, rather than packing their side with Adam Zampa to complement Imran Tahir in the legspin department.
Stats that matter
- Rising Pune haven't been able to identify a complement of death bowlers to plug the runs from overs 16-20. That has resulted in them leaking runs at an economy rate of 11.95 in the last five, the second worst among all teams this season. At home, that number has gone up to 14.50.
- Dhoni has been far from fluent with the bat. He has had a strike rate in excess of 100 in just one of his five innings. A record holder for hitting most sixes - 104 - in the final five overs across ten editions, he has no sixes in the same passage of play this year.
- One of the finds of the tournament - Rashid Khan - has struggled against Indian batsmen for three successive games. After Robin Uthappa (21 off 12) and Manan Vohra (37 off 14), he was picked for 16 off seven deliveries by Shreyas Iyer in the previous game. He has conceded 140 off the 109 deliveries he has bowled to Indian batsmen.
- The average first innings score at Pune since 2015 is 175, which is the second-best after Chinnaswamy, among venues that have hosted a minimum of three matches.
- In the 10 matches at the MCA Stadium since 2015, six games have been won by the chasing side. That only once has a score of less than 180 been defended here shows why the surface can sometimes be taken out of the equation here.