The second Qualifier of the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League will see Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals locking horns with each other. The two teams will be competing at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Friday to book a place in the IPL 2024 final against Kolkata Knight Riders.
The Royals defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Eliminator with a 4-wicket win as RCB batters failed to put a huge dent in the scoreboard in the first innings and the Sanju Samson-led side chased the target with one over to spare.
Sunrisers Hyderabad succumbed to the domination of the Kolkata Knight Riders in the first Qualifier and ended up handing them an easy victory. However, they have a chance to redeem themselves on Friday and take a step closer to lifting the prestigious IPL trophy.
What has happened so far?
Coming into the Eliminator, a lot of doubts were looming over Rajasthan Royals, as they had not scored a single victory in their last five matches. Their batters mostly let the team down, as they failed to put up defendable scores on the board while their last league match against the Knight Riders was washed out.
However, the team finished third in the points tally and finally regained prime form during the encounter against the Bengaluru-based outfit. It was a spectacular bowling performance by Ravi Ashwin and Avesh Khan, as RCB was restricted to a score of just 172 runs in the allotted 20 overs.
Chasing the total wasn’t a hard task for the team and they achieved the score within 19 overs riding on a 45-run knock by Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag’s 36 runs.
As far as Sunrisers Hyderabad are concerned, the team concluded the league round on a winning note finishing second in the points table with 17 points.
However, they could not continue the momentum and ended up scoring an embarrassing defeat against KKR in the first Qualifier by eight wickets. SRH was restricted to a poor score of 159 runs in the first innings and the Riders successfully chased it within 13.4 overs.
Head to Head Record
Sunrisers Hyderabad are slightly ahead of Rajasthan Royals in the head-to-head records. The two teams have played against each other in a total of 19 matches and SRH has scored victory in 10 games while the remaining nine fixtures saw RR ending up as the winner.
In IPL 2024, the Sunrisers have an upper hand over the Royals as SRH won the only encounter between the sides by a 1-run margin as the trio of Travis Head, Nitish Reddy, and Heinrich Klaasen helped the hosts put 201 runs on the board.
In response, RR lost Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson early but the partnership between Jaiswal and Parag helped the Royals claw their way back into the match. Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, and Rovman Powell failed to finish the game falling short by a run.
Key Players
Riyan Parag (Rajasthan Royals): Riyan Parag has been one of the biggest assets for the Rajasthan Royals in the 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League. He is currently the top run-scorer for the franchise while also occupying third place in the overall list just behind Virat Kohli and Ruturaj Gaikwad with 567 runs in 14 matches at an average of over 56.
The middle-order batter dished out a decent performance in the Eliminator match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru as well as he smacked 36 runs off 26 balls to help his team chase 173 runs within 19 overs. Parag is expected to continue the series of good performances on Friday as RR’s batting order has already taken a hit following Jos Buttler’s exit.
Travis Head is the top run-scorer for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2024
Travis Head (Sunrisers Hyderabad): Travis Head will be the player to watch out for as they will go one-on-one against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the second Qualifier. Head’s impactful power-hitting has been one of the major reasons behind the team’s splendid performance in the cash-rich league. He is also the top run-scorer for the franchise with 533 runs in 13 games at an average of 44.42 and a strike rate of over 199.
The batter has not been in good shape lately and even ended up scoring a golden duck in the first qualifier against KKR.
Team News from Both Camps
Rajasthan Royals will be without the services of their ace opening batter Jos Buttler as he left the team’s camp before the IPL 2024 playoffs because of national commitments. RR replaced Buttler with Tom Kodler-Cadmore at the top of the batting line-up and they are likely to go with the same option on Friday as well.
Following a big injury, Shimron Hetmyer has also made a return to the team’s playing XI. Meanwhile, Sunrisers Hyderabad will have all their players available for selection.
Predicted XIs
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), Nitish Reddy, Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar, Pat Cummins ©, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan
Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Sanju Samson © (wk), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal
Prediction
Sunrisers Hyderabad are expected to take the lead on Friday and proceed to the final against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday. Though the team lost the first qualifier, they have a better squad on paper and are more likely to put up a dominating performance.