Sunrisers Hyderabad v Punjab Kings IPL Tips: Punjab to hit back

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Wednesday 21 April,15:00
TV: Sky Sports

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Punjab Kings IPL team news

Sunrisres Hyderabad suffered their first defeat in six last time out against Kolkata. It was a potential watershed moment for them. Suspicions that they might not be very good are growing. It was a one-dimensional effort from the Sunrisers. If they can't hit, they're something rhyming with hit.

The home batters failed to adapt to a dry pitch which gave grip to the Kolkata spinners. Cue lots of balls going straight up in the air. When they tried to defend 165 their lack of an international class spinner told.

Shivang Kumar is the sole specialist at the moment. It could be they start to turn to Abhishek Sharma or Travis Head for overs. It was noted how Head, often a sub, was kept on the field against KKR.

Possible XI: Abhishek, Head, Kishan, Klaasen, Smaran, Verma (sub Sakib), Arora, Cummins, Harshal, Malinga

Punjab Capitals are having a wobble with consecutive defeats. Is this the start of something serious or can it be dismissed as getting on the wrong end of a couple of rough and tumble contests? Probably the latter.

Against Royals they were simply /defeated on the day by a team who beat them at their own game. Punjab batted first on a road and were probably 20-odd short. The Royals batted superbly, as is their wont. The loss to Gujarat can be put down to an aggressive style not coming off at the front, which will happen. They actually did well to post 163 from 47 for five and had a sniff defending.

There should be no panic so we expect Punjab to remain unchanged.

Possible XI: Arya, Prab Singh, Connolly, Shreyas, Wadhera (Sub Vyshak), Stoinis, Shedge, Jansen, Bartlett, Arshdeep, Chahal

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Punjab Kings IPL pitch report

The Hyderabad surface looked extremely dry for the contest agaiunst Kolkata. Sure, it was a road for the Sunrisers' powerplay but once the spinners came on they were able to induce injudicious shots from the home team. Do we expect more of the same?

Well, this is a night game. The first-innings for SRH-KKR was played in exremely hot conditions in the day. Filtering night matches in IPL only in the last three years at Hyderabad the RPO is 9.99. The first- and second-innings rates are 9.6 and 10.3. There is no toss bias.

Another factor is that there is a Hyderabad surface which can be tacky and slow. We probably saw that in the first game there this season. So a cheap lay on unders 160 and 170, which may count as extreme these days, is an option.

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Punjab Kings match prediction

Sportsbook can't separate these two at 9/101.90 the pair. The Betfair Exchange has Punjab at 1.8910/11 and Sunrisers at 2.0811/10. It is probably correct that Punjab are marginal favourites. The 9/101.90, though, is slightly bigger.

As stated, Sunrisers can be one-dimensional and at the denoument of a season on worn surfaces, they may not be able to hit through the line with such confidence. How they fare when the spinners come on and variation is bowled will define their campaign.

They also look one-dimensional with the ball. Where is the canny pace-off bowler? Where is the spinner? Punjab have no such issues and are pefectly set up to counter all conditions. They are the better balanced team and we expect them to win.

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Punjab Kings IPL player bets

Prab Singh, the Punjab opener, is coming back towards the win zone and we rate our top follow on the plater markets. Sportsbook go 10/34.33 that he scores most runs for Punjab. A slightly less fraught bet is the 15/82.88 that he scores 40 or more. That could cop very quickly indeed given his potential to bust the 150 strike rate mark.

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