IPL: SRH VS DD LIVE

Hyderabad: Delhi Daredevils, who are looking to get back to winning ways after two straight defeats, face a stern test as they clash with formidable Sunrisers Hyderabad in an IPL T20 cricket match, in Hyderabad on Thursday.
The home team is in red-hot form, having secured 14 points from 10 matches (winning 7 and losing only 3) and it would look to cement its position at the top by scoring a comfortable win against the Daredevils.
Putting its unimpressive run in IPL history behind, Hyderabad is a well-oiled machine this year with its bowlers and batsmen clicking collectively.
SRH captain David Warner is one of the highest run-getters in this edition and he single-handedly led the team to victory more than once. The other opener Shikhar Dhawan has also been in good form steering the team in the event of his skipper's early dismissal.
Dhawan's 33-run knock in 27 balls went a long way in the team to post 137 in yesterday's match against Rising Pune Supergiants in Visakhapatnam. SRH won the match by four runs despite Adam Zampa's dream spell of six for 19.
SRH also has brilliant batsmen in Kane Williamson, Moises Henriques and Deepak Hooda and wicket-keeper batsman Naman Ojha in the middle of the batting order.
The lethal bowling attack of Sunrisers, comprising Bhuvneshwar Kumar, seasoned Ashish Nehra, latest pace sensation Mustafizur Rahman and Barinder Sran, is the most-feared in the current edition of the IPL.
It is no exaggeration when somebody pointed out that to play against the sharp SRH bowlers on their home turf is like taking on a crocodile in waters.
The visitors are currently ranked fourth in the points table with 10 points coming their way from nine matches.
However, the DD, mentored by Rahul Dravid, has not faltered on its basics as could be seen in its impressive run.
It has some some top class players in its ranks like Quinton de Kock, captain Zaheer Khan, wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson and top-order player Karun Nair.
Delhi would hope Zaheer provides early breakthroughs. He has also been impressive in the death overs in some of the matches. Youngsters Samson and Rishabh Pant will need to play big knocks to make an impact.
DD had rested some of its important players for some matches and it remains to be seen if they come back in the playing XI for the crucial match on Thursday.

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RCB LOOSES ITS WINNING STREAK

Bengaluru: Mumbai Indians relied on a late assault from Kieron Pollard and Jos Buttler to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets in their crucial IPL match and kept their hopes of a play-offs berth alive at M Chinnaswamy on Wednesday.
Chasing 152 for a win, Pollard and Buttler smashed unbeaten cameos of 35 and 29 respectively to share a partnership of 55 runs from just 3.3 overs for fifth wicket to take Mumbai home with eight balls to spare.
Pollard smashed three fours and two sixes in his 19-ball innings while Buttler hit one four and three sixes in his 11-ball unconquered knock.
Ambati Rayudu contributed with 47-ball 44 to keep Mumbai on track in chase after the dismissals of Rohit Sharma and Parthiv Patel. Bangalore kept the match alive with some brilliant fielding as Stuart Binny and AB de Villiers took a stunning catch each but in the end the score they were defending was found to be too small.
Buttler hit the winning runs as Mumbai reached 153 for four in 18.4 overs to notch up their sixth win in 11 matches and they jumped to fourth spot in the points table.
Bangalore, on the other hand, slumped to their sixth loss in 10 matches and they remained on sixth spot with eight points. They will now have to win all their remaining matches to have a chance of making it to the play-off stage.
Mumbai suffered an early jolt with Parthiv getting out in the second over with Sreenath Aravind inducing a thick edge from the batsman's bat for Shane Watson to take a regulation catch at first slip.
Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu then steadied the Mumbai Indians' innings with some sensible batting.
The visiting side were 39 for one at the end of powerplay overs and were cruising along before Rohit was dismissed at a crucial time. The Mumbai captain did not play his pull shot properly off Varun Aaron and de Villiers pulled off an easy catch at long-on.
Rohit's dismissal somewhat changed the scenario as the asking has reached near 10 an over by then. Binny then took a stunning catch near the boundary ropes to dismiss debutant Nitish Rana (9) of the bowling of Yuzvendra Chahal to leave Mumbai at 79 for 3 in the 13th over. Mumbai needed 54 runs from the last five overs and they suffered another jolt as well-set batsman Rayudu was dismissed in 16th over due with Villiers coming up with an exceptional catch as he plucked the ball inches above the ground with a forward lunging dive. Pollard and Buttler, however, kept their cool as they smashed 18 and 16 runs in the next two overs with a flurry of fours and sixes off Shane Watson and Chris Jordan respectively to ease off the pressure.
Mumbai needed just 10 runs from the final 12 balls and Buttler ended the match early by hitting a six on the fourth ball of the penultimate over to take Mumbai home.
Earlier, Lokesh Rahul struck a superb unbeaten half century as Bangalore made a late recovery after a struggling start to post a decent 151 for four.
The Bangalore top order batsmen, except for Rahul (68 not out), failed to click after being put into bat but a late flurry of lusty blows from the wicketkeeper batsman saw the home side reach to a fighting total.
Rahul, who came in when Bangalore were in a precarious 17 for two in the fourth over, struck three fours and four sixes in his 53-ball unbeaten innings.
He shared 43 runs with AB de Villiers (24) for the third wicket and another 53 with Sachin Baby (25 not out) for the unbroken fifth wicket as the home side went past 150-run mark on account of the late recovery.
Bangalore were 60 for 2 at the halfway stage but added 91 runs from the next 10 overs. Sachin gave an able support to Rahul towards the close of the innings with a quickfire knock of 13-ball 25 not out which had two fours and two sixes.
The cause of the home side was helped by the 23 runs Kieron Pollard leaked in the 18th over with Sachin Baby hitting two sixes and a four while Rahul also his share of a maximum hit.
For Mumbai, Mitchell McClenaghan, Tim Southee and Krunal Pandya took a wicket each.
Bangalore captain Virat Kohli (7), who has been in red hot form, met with a rare failure tonight. He struck a six on the fifth ball of the match bowled by Southee but was dismissed in the second over by Mitchell McClenaghan.
Kohli poked at a shortish delivery which was angling away, trying to guide it to third man, but only to find Harbhajan Singh taking an easy catch.
Two overs later, Chris Gayle (5) perished as he tried to smash a back of a length delivery on the off bowled by Southee with Rohit Sharma taking a well-judged catch.
AB de Villiers (24) and Shane Watson (15) got off to starts but were not able to convert them into a big score

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IPL 2016 Match 40: Rising Pune Supergiants Vs Sunrisers Hyderabad

For Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men, it has been a demoralising journey so far as apart from three wins against - Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Daredevils - they have failed to trouble other teams, losing four matches at their home ground in Pune itself. Dhoni also have been left with a depleted side after a spate of injuries which led to the return of Faf du Plessis, Kevin Pietersen, Steven Smith and Mitchell Marsh. Though Pakistani-born Australian batsman Usman Khawaja and former Aussie captain George Bailey joined the side, they have not been able to make much of a difference so far and the Sanjeev Goenka-owned team will need desperately need to do something to keep themselves afloat. The Supergiants have been affected by the lack of qualify bowlers, who can restrict the opponents. None of their bowlers figure in the top 15 wicket-takers list this season. Among batsmen, it has been left to Ajinkya Rahane to do the job as he has scored 417 runs so far and is placed at the third spot in highest run-getters list. With the team needing to win every match from here on to stay in the hunt, Dhoni and his boys know very well that any slip up now and they can safely say goodbye to the tournament. Hyderabad, on the other hand, have been riding on a wave of success with their latest win being against two-time winner and defending champions Mumbai Indians by 85 runs last night at the ACA-VDCA stadium here. The Sunrisers have been driven by the batting prowess of skipper David Warner, who is placed at the second position in top-scorers list with 458 runs with five fifties so far. Shikhar Dhawan too has taken the responsibility and complemented his captain in the opening slot. Australian all-rounder Moises Henriques too has proved to be an important cog in Sunrisers' wheels with some crucial contributions. Having returned to the side after recovering from an ankle injury, Yuvraj Singh too is slowly getting into the groove. Hyderabad's bowling unit too have worked like a well-oiled machine with their formidable pace battery of Ashsish Nehra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bangladesh's Mustafizur Rahman and Barinder Sran doing the job for the team. Squads Rising Pune Supergiants: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain and wicketkeeper), Ankit Sharma, Baba Aparajith, Murugan Ashwin, Ravichandran Ashwin, George Bailey, Ankush Bains, Rajat Bhatia, Scott Boland, Deepak Chahar, Ashok Dinda, Peter Handscombe, Usman Khawaja, Albie Morkel, Ishwar Pandey, Irfan Pathan, Thisara Perera, Ajinkya Rahane, Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Saurabh Tiwary, Adam Zampa. Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (captain), Ashish Reddy, Ricky Bhui, Bipul Sharma, Trent Boult, Ben Cutting, Shikhar Dhawan, Moises Henriques, Deepak Hooda, Siddarth Kaul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Abhimanyu Midtun, Eoin Morgan, Mustafizur Rahman, Ashish Mehra, Naman Ojha (wicketkeeper), Vijay Shanker, Karn Sharma, Barinder Sran, T Suman, Aditya Tare, Kane Williamson, Yuvraj Singh.

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