IPL 2020: SRH vs RCB Game Plan 2- SRH’s vulnerable middle-order and the Chahal threat
The third match of the IPL 2020 tournament between the blockbuster teams, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore, could all be about match-ups. We take a look at a key game plan that could play a role in the third game of IPL 2020 – SRH vs RCB.
Even though SRH openers are great, they do have middle-order woes. Since 2018, their middle-order batsmen are amongst the worst in the league. If both SRH openers fail, the Orange Army would be in trouble.
It looks like Kane Williamson won’t play, and he shouldn’t for the sake of balance in SRH. Anyway, Manish Pandey is a good contender for the #3 role. The rest of the middle-order will be occupied by Vijay Shankar and Mohammad Nabi – among known names. All of them are right-handed batsmen and Chahal could cause some trouble for them. In middle-overs since 2017, the leg-spinner has an imposing average of 22 and concedes less than 7 runs per over against RHBs.
Another factor is that the mentioned batsmen don’t have a good scoring rate against the leg-spinners – Nabi has a small sample size. Pandey has a decent average but a below-par strike rate and Shankar is not great in either of the metrics. While hitting on the good length, Chahal could turn the ball away from them which should bring success to him.
It looks like Shahbaz Ahmed – who will add variety in RCB’s bowling attack – can make his IPL debut. The slow left-arm orthodox bowler is among the better spin all-rounders in the domestic circuit. And, he is also a good match-up against Pandey and Shankar; Nabi doesn’t have enough sample size. Even though Pandey averages 105 against SLA bowlers in the middle-overs since 2017, he has a poor strike rate of 104 against such bowlers. Shankar’s numbers are pathetic as well.
Navdeep Saini, the speedster, can be used against Shankar and Nabi. Whilst Nabi is a good power-hitter in the lower-order, Saini’s express pace might be tough for him. Against the right-arm fast bowlers (excluding medium-pacers), Nabi averages 16.7, while Shankar under 20 in the IPL since 2017. Saini can bowl back of the length at a high pace and short balls to trouble them.
If SRH promote any of the rookie southpaws, RCB have Moeen Ali in their ranks to encounter them. Whilst Moeen is not a great wicket-taker, he has done well in the IPL if the economy rate is a benchmark. Most of such batsmen are also not very comfortable against high pace – at least at the beginning of their careers – thus Saini can be a good match-up as well.
