The middle-order issue was their only talking point heading into IPL 2020. Two matches later, Sunrisers Hyderabad are yet to win a match in the tournament, the only team so far, and middle-order issue has been the primary reason behind their winless run. On the contrary, their opponent for Tuesday night at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, Delhi Capitals have been a far better side despite the absence of two of their veteran players - Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin. They defeated Kings XI Punjab and the mighty Chennai Super Kings to take the top spot in the points table. Can Delhi extend their winning run or will SRH manage to pull off a sensational win?
Head-to-head tie: Sunrisers Hyderabad head the rivalry with a 9-6 win-loss record against the Capitals, but Shreyas Iyer's side have won the last two matches one which was the IPL 2019 Eliminator. Sunrisers had however got the better of Delhi in their only encounter on UAE soil, in IPL 2014, with a nine-wicket win in Dubai.
Crucial stats:
- Since Stuart Broad's Ashes domination in 2019, bowlers have tended to follow the pattern of attacking David Warner from around the wicket. Jofra Archer recently exploited that aspect in the ODI and T20I series, dismissing him four times across the two formats for 40 runs in 48 balls. In IPL 2020, Pat Cummins added to his woe dismissing him in a similar fashion. Warner would hence be wary about Rabada and Nortje who might use the same tactic.
- Rishabh Pant owns a very impressive record against Sunrisers Hyderabad. His strike rate of 162.37 is the second-best in IPL history against the franchise. More so, he statistically owns two of SRH's top bowlers - Bhuvneshwar Kumar (65 runs, 26 balls, 1 dismissal) and Rashid Khan (54 runs, 37 balls and 1 dismissal).
- SRH might be tempted to pick Sandeep Sharma in a bid to have an upper edge against Delhi captain Shreyas Iyer whom he has dismissed thrice in 45 balls while conceding 37 runs.
- Besides their middle-order woes, SRH have another big reason to worry. Their top two bowlers, Bhuvneshwar and Rashid have picked just one wicket between themselves. While the pacer has gone wicketless for 54 runs in two matches at an ER of 7.71, Rashid picked one wicket for 56 runs in as many matches at an ER of 7.00.
- For Delhi, their main issue has been their batting in the powerplay where they average just 29.5 so far compared to 49.40 in 2019.
