IPL 9: Mercurial Sunrisers face Knights

At one point in time it seemed almost certain that the two units involved in Wednesday’s playoff between the third and fourth placed teams would have done better, not needing this game at the Kotla at all.

Such has been the topsy-turvy nature of IPL-9 though, that former champions Kolkata Knight Riders and the reborn Sunrisers Hyderabad are here to play the Eliminator, with the losers going home, and the winners lining up for what will be a virtual semi-final two days later.

KKR, two-time winners of India’s premier Twenty20 thrash, suffered a mid-tournament slump that eventually saw them squeeze through to this match as the fourth, and final, qualifiers. They will however, hope that past records, plus their 22-run win over the same opponents at home on Sunday will give them an extra edge.

The Sunrisers did finish a slot about KKR in the final league tally on net run rate, but go into Wednesday’s match on the back of two successive losses. Given the nature of T20 cricket, however, that counts for little as form can turn around remarkably quickly. Also, the price of defeat here is a ticket home, a remarkably strong motivator in itself.

Both Sunrisers and KKR finished on 16 points each, but Gautam Gambhir’s team also have the advantage of beating the Sunrisers both home and away this year. Given that every advantage is bound to be leveraged, it gives the champions the narrowest of advantages for Wednesday.

Gambhir has led a strong batting unit from the front with 473 runs as KKR’s top scorer thus far, while fellow opener Robin Uthappa (383 runs) and Yusuf Pathan (359) have chipped in as well. Adding some spice to their natural aggression will be the fact that despite all the runs, they were ignored for the ODI and T20 tour of Zimbabwe next month.

The Knights will also be hoping to have key all-rounder Andre Russell back in action after the Jamaican had to sit out the last two matches with an injured leg.

For their part, the Eagles had two poor displays with bat before travelling here and will look to their captain, David Warner, to lead them out of the woods. The Australian powerhouse is only behind the on-fire Virat Kohli with his 658 runs and has struck a fruitful combination up-front with Shikhar Dhawan, who has so far piled on 463 runs after a sluggish start to the season.

Warner will also be heartened by the flowing swing of Yuvraj Singh’s bat. The on-off all-rounder has not had a great time of it this year but has shown flashes of his destructive abilities. He will like the Kotla.

In terms of the bowling, these are two evenly matched sides. The Eagles though have the fizz of Mustafizur Rahman, arguably the most exciting bowler in the tournament, to back up the efforts. They will however, miss the experience of home boy Ashish Nehra, ruled out with a hamstring injury.There is thus all to play for, and even for the winners, it will only be a breather before the next, bigger game here on Friday.