Punjab and Hyderabad will lock horns at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Mumbai on April 17. Both teams have won three games each out of five. Hyderabad are coming into the match after three back to back wins, while Punjab picked up a close win over Mumbai in the last game. Both teams will be keen to continue their winning momentum.
Team News
Punjab:Â Â The team won their last game against five-time winners Mumbai. The team has won three and lost two games. However, their bowling is an issue as they concede runs at an economy rate of more than nine. They would want to sort their bowling as soon as possible. However, expect them to go with the same playing XI which featured against Mumbai
Key Players:Â
Shikhar Dhawan:Â The left-hander scored 70 in the last game. He has been one of the most consistent performers of the tournament in the last few years. Dhawan, with all his experience, will be eyeing another decent outing against Hyderabad
Kagiso Rabada: The right-arm pacer did well with two wickets for 29 runs in the high scoring thriller against Mumbai. He is the leader of Punjab’s pace attack and the team will expect another match winning effort from him.
Probable XI:Â Mayank Agarwal (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Jonny Bairstow, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Odean Smith, Kagiso Rabada, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh, Vaibhav Arora
Hyderabad:Â They have made a remarkable comeback with three back to back wins after losing their first two games. They won against Kolkata convincingly by chasing the target of 176 runs in just 17.3 overs. Expect them to go unchanged in the next game.
Key Players:Â
Rahul Tripathi:Â The right-hander scored 71 against his former side, Kolkata. He came in after Hyderabad lost their openers cheaply and turned the game on his head. Tripathi is one of the most underrated cricketers in Indian T20 League and he would like to deliver another decent performance which will allow him to get a bit more limelight.
T Natarajan:Â The left-arm pacer took three wickets in the last game against Kolkata. He bowled well with the new ball and then can back to trick the batters with his variations with old ball. He is a valuable asset to the team and Hyderabad will be expecting good performance from him.
Probable XI:Â Kane Williamson (c), Abhishek Sharma, Rahul Tripathi, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Shashank Singh, J Suchith, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Marco Jansen, Umran Malik, T Natarajan
Match Details
Venue: D.Y. Patil Stadium, Mumbai
Time: 03:30 PM IST
Live Telecast:Â Star Sports Network and Disney+Hotstar
Pitch Report:Â The wickets are getting slower with regular cricket. While the surface will still be favourable for batters, slower bowlers are starting to get some help from the surface. While teams have preferred chasing in the tournament, this might not be the case im-;pn games to follow as the wickets will get slower, especially in day games.yu
