High-flying Hyderabad and the struggling Delhi fight out in the second qualifier to book their place in the Indian T20 League final with Mumbai.
Delhi lost to Mumbai in the first qualifier, and Hyderabad defeated Bangalore by 6-wickets to win the eliminator game on Friday.
Match Timings: Nov 08, 7:30 PM
Team Preview
Rejuvenated Hyderabad is now a significant threat after recording four consecutive wins. In the previous eliminator tie, Warner’s troops hold the nerve in a low-scoring thriller and knocked out Bangalore from the tournament. Williamson scored a brilliant half-century and put a match-winning stand with calm Jason Holder. Hyderabad upset all the odds to come here in a dramatic fashion. Beating top sides in the last three league stage match with pure domination to earn playoff qualification to overcome Bangalore in style, Hyderabad is now two wins away to get their second title after 2016.
Saha’s injury is a big concern for Hyderabad, and physio is assuring the coaching staff to get him to recovery ahead of the qualifier. In the absence of Saha, Warner has an enormous responsibility at the top. Holder’s inclusion did wonders for Hyderabad. He bowls crucial overs in the powerplay and provides the finishing role with the bat. Sandeep Sharma and Natarajan’s ability to pick wickets in powerplay and death overs, respectively, is excellent. Rashid Khan is controlling runs in middle-overs along with Shahbaz Nadeem. How overseas players perform decides the outcome of Hyderabad’s every match. The current enthusiasm gives them an upper hand to face Mumbai in the final.
Meanwhile, Delhi’s story is quite similar to Bangalore; the only difference is they finished in the top two to avoid early elimination. Five losses from the previous six matches narrate their downfall and the struggle in the second half of the tournament. The wait for the maiden triumph awaits, and they have to play out of their skin to surpass two hurdles in the next three days. The top-order trauma didn’t stop even in the playoffs as Mumbai picked three top-order batsmen on a duck. Iyer and Pant’s inconsistency is making their whole batting unit more problematic.
Stoinis showed some fire against Mumbai, but consistency is still missing. Could he deliver again is still a big question? Ponting can drop Sams to take Hetmyer back, but unfortunately, he hasn’t been impressed yet. To boost the spin, he can also take Lamichhane in the squad, but Delhi would avoid this change. The death-bowling against Mumbai was so poor as Pandya took away the game from Delhi. How the batsmen perform against Hyderabad’s bowling unit would decide Delhi’s fate in the tournament. Toss will be crucial, but with this struggling approach, chasing would be more difficult.
Pitch Report
Abu Dhabi’s surface is now offering good spin. Dew factor comes first, but still, spinners have an advantage. Any score above 150-160 will be a tricky one. Chasing is an ideal pick, but a substantial total can also help to batting-first side.
Possible XI
Hyderabad
David Warner (c), Shreevats Goswami/Saha(wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan
Delhi
Prithvi Shaw/Shimron Hetmyer, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Shreyas Iyer (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Daniel Sams/Harshal Patel/Praveen Dubey, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje
Key Players
Hyderabad
David Warner
This season – M: 15, Runs: 546, Avg: 42
Jason Holder
This season – M: 6, Runs: 13, Avg: 14.07
Delhi
Shikhar Dhawan
This season – M: 15, Runs: 525, Avg: 43.75
Kagiso Rabada
This season – M: 15, Wickets: 25, Avg: 19.48
