VIVO IPL 2017- Champions Sunrisers Hyderabad faces RCB in tournament opener

• Tweet
• Pin It

Vivo IPL 2017 is all set to kick start from today. The 47 day biggest carnival in the world of cricket is back again to captivate you with its charm. And what better way to start the majestic tournament by repeating the last year’s final. The defending champion Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) is all set to clash with Royal Challengers Banglore (RCB), the team they beat in the last year’s final to claim their maiden IPL 2017 title. While SRH would want to start their campaign as defending champions in style RCB is keen to avenge their loss in last year’s final.

However, there is not so much good news for the Banglore side as they will go into the game without two of their best and most destructive batsmen Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. Interestingly, they both were also the first two choices to lead the side. Virat Kohli is the regular team captain while AB was to take up the responsibility in Kohli’s absence. Virat Kohli is still recovering from the shoulder injury he suffered in the third test match against Austrailia whereas a back problem has sidelined AB for the game. While Virat is expected to miss a few games for RCB, AB de Villiers will be back in time for the next game. To add more woes to RCB, their another star batsman KL Rahul who was in sublime form against Australia has been ruled out of the entire tournament due to a shoulder injury.

To add more woes to RCB, their another star wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul who was in sublime form against Australia has been ruled out of the entire tournament due to a shoulder injury. Sarfaraz Khan, another rising young star has injured his leg while practising and is out of the whole tournament as well.

RCB’s monstrous batting strength is the reason it is feared so much by other teams. Now, it will be interesting to see how the team cope up with so many injuries. It has certainly depleted their fire power and has put extra responsibilities on the likes of Chris Gayle and stand-in skipper Shane Watson who will lead the team in the absence of Kohli.

The only concern for Sunrisers Hyderabad will the absence of their pace sensation from Bangladesh, Mustafizur Rahman, who is currently on national duty with Bangladesh against Srilanka. Mustafizur broke into the International scene and immediately became a household name by destroying the best batting line-ups including India. He attracted the attention of SRH who picked him in their squad last year. He was their best bowler and was pivotal to their success in winning the maiden IPL title. Other than that SRH will have a strong complete squad to choose from. With their star players like captain David Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj Singh fit and ready to go Sunrisers hyderabad will be hoping to start the tournament on a high.

INTERESTING STATS

 
David Warner scored 716 runs at home for SRH at an average of 60 and strike rate of 163. He was their best player with the bat tormenting bowlers all through the tournament and was instrumental in leading Sunrisers hydrabad to the title, Warner has scored 324 runs at home at an average of 54 and strike rate of 160.

The six hitting machine Chris Gayle has not had the best of times in Hyderabad. He has scored just 77 runs in 4 IPL 2017 innings in Hyderabad. On the bright side, Gayle has taken 33 runs off 23 balls from Ashish Nehra, 94 runs off 63 balls from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and 19 runs off 8 balls from Ben Cutting and 23 runs off 8 balls from Moises Henriques in the IPL 2017.

David Warner’s run rate against his former Aussie team-mate Shane Watson and Yuzvendra Chahal is over 10. He has scored 26 runs off 15 balls from Watson and 90 runs off 51 balls from Chahal.

Chris Gayle needs 63 runs to become the first ever batsman to complete 10,000 runs in T20 cricket.

David Warner needs 79 runs to become the fourth batsman to complete 7000 runs in T20 cricket.

Ashish Nehra needs 2 wickets to become the 8th bowler in IPL to take 100 wickets.

SRH wicket-keeper Naman Ojha needs 1 catch to claim 100 catches in T20 cricket.

HEAT TO HEAD

Both teams have faced off each other 9 times.

SRH has won 5 times while RCB has won 4 times.

Last year the teams met thrice in which SRH won 2 times ( including final) and RCB won 1 game.

• Tweet
• Pin It