Sunrisers Hyderabad, champions of IPL 2016, will take on the winners of the inaugural IPL season Rajasthan Royals in match 5 of the tournament’s 15th edition. The game will be played in Pune’s Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium (MCA).
Having let go of their star batsman David Warner, the Sunrisers will be led by Kane Williamson. The Royals, on the other hand, will be led by the young Sanju Samson.
SRH vs RR – Head to head total
SRH and RR have played a total of 30 IPL games between them. The former have won eight of those, while the latter have seven wins. In the last five meetings between the two, the Royals have won three.
The highest score posted by SRH against RR is 201, while the highest score posted by RR against SRH is 220. The lowest total posted by both teams against each other is 127 (RR) and 102 (SRH)
Injury update and team news
SRH – Australian fast bowler Sean Abbott, who is currently in Pakistan for the ODI series, is not available for the first few games.
RR – For the Royals, mostly all players from their squad are available to play in their opening game.
Probable XI for both the teams
Sunrisers Hyderabad - Abhishek Sharma, Kane Williamson (c), Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Abdul Samad, Washington Sundar, Marco Jansen, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Umran Malik.
Rajasthan Royals - Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (c and wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Jimmy Neesham, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Two players to watch out for from both teams
SRH – Nicholas Pooran and Washington Sundar
West Indies international Nicholas Pooran’s destructiveness in the shortest format is well known. The southpaw has a strike rate of more than 142 in his T20 career and has been a part of mostly all T20 leagues around the world. Most recently, Pooran hit three successive half centuries in the T20I series against India.
Sundar, on the other hand, will be raring to hit form after a long injury layoff. The offspinner can produce important knocks in the middle order and will be Hyderabad’s most dependable all-rounder this year. Sundar has played 42 IPL matches, from which he has 27 wickets and 217 runs.
RR – Devdutt Padikkal and Sanju Samson
Captain Sanju Samson has been one of Rajasthan’s best performers over the last few seasons. He scored 484 runs in 14 matches last season at an average of 40.33 and a strike rate of 136.72. Samson will be hoping that this year he reaches new heights as a captain too.
Devdutt Padikkal is another exciting player to watch out for. The youngster has previously done well for RCB as an opener and will now be looking to deliver results for his new franchise. His strike rate, though, has been unimpressive on few occasions.
Who will win the match between SRH and RR?
Betwala predicts Rajasthan Royals to win the game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Although both teams have a strong squad, Rajasthan have covered every base properly – pacers, spinners, batsmen, all-rounders. They also have the two very experienced India spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal in their ranks. Hyderabad, meanwhile, will be without David Warner and Rashid Khan this time, and it will be interesting to see how the other players take Warner and Rashid’s place in the team.
Where to watch the SRH vs RR IPL 2022 match in India?
The SRH vs RR IPL 2022 match can be watched on the Star Sports Network in India on March 29 at 7.30 PM IST. You can also watch the match online on the Hotstar app.
Image credit: IPL
