The Sunrisers Hyderabad team did many things right in the match against KKR, but somehow ended up losing the match. T. Natarajan, Mayank Markande, and Pat Cummins performed well early on, taking several wickets and restricting KKR to 119 for 6. The death bowling efforts were quite poor as they couldn’t contain Andre Russell and Rinku Singh from hitting the ball around the park. Perhaps Cummins will preserve himself for the death overs to try and alter the balance of the attack a bit. Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s outing was unforgettable, and SRH will need an experienced campaigner to achieve success. On the other hand, Heinrich Klaasen marked a brilliant performance with the bat. Is there currently a better T20 batsman in the world than him? We’d argue not. With him in the lineup, SRH always has a weapon at their disposal. Aiden Markram and Abhishek Sharma are two other key players in the lineup supported by Mayank Agarwal and Rahul Tripathi. We believe there’s a case for including Travis Head in the lineup, but Pat Cummins seems happier with the all-round talents of Marco Jansen at the moment. SRH is a very strong team with world-class overseas players. The trick is to utilize the opportunities provided by Indian players as effectively as possible.
Mumbai Indians entered IPL 2024 as the favorite for the title for most bookmakers. It seemed like they had more than enough to beat GT, keeping their overall score below par, and then getting off to a good start with the bat. Things didn’t quite go as planned, and some strange decisions prevented MI from utilizing their resources to the fullest. Heading into the match against SRH, having a bowler like Jasprit Bumrah leading the attack is a huge advantage. He can take the new ball, bowl in the middle overs, and effectively operate at the death. Jerald Kootz seems to be the overseas fast bowling option that MI relies on, supported by Hardik Pandya and Luke Wood. MI lacks a strong set of spinners, which they knew ahead of IPL 2024. The MI batting lineup is obviously strong, but without SKY, there are a few questions to be answered. Rohit was good early on but lacked big innings. At the same time, Ishan Kishan is out of form, Tim David seems to struggle against spin, and Hardik Pandya is batting in a position he hasn’t endorsed for the past few years. MI appears more vulnerable than it has been for a long time.
