IPL 2020: SRH vs CSK Game Plan – Tacking the two Ws, Watson and Warner
SRH vs CSK – The twenty-eighth match of the IPL 2020 tournament between the blockbuster teams could all be about match-ups. We take a look at a key game plan that could play a role in the twenty-eighth game of IPL 2020 – SRH vs CSK
SRH vs CSK – The CSK plan that should work
There’s a tempo to David Warner’s batting this IPL season that opposition teams have been able to dictate to an extent. A ferocious striker against spin, Chennai Super Kings showed the ideal way to frustrate Warner into an error the last time these two sides met in the season.
Incidentally, that game was also at Dubai and CSK used pace for eight overs upfront against Sunrisers to not let Warner off the hook. Deepak Chahar was used for three overs inside the powerplay and CSK struck early when they removed Bairstow with an inswinger in the very first over.
SRH vs CSK : Sunrisers won’t have it easy vs CSK
When Bairstow is gone, Warner tends to be even more cautious in approach, mindful of the weak middle-order SRH have. Warner hit just one boundary inside the powerplay and until spin came on in the 9th over of the innings.
Warner, on 15 off 19 balls, had to take on Piyush Chawla and was dismissed caught out in the deep. Containing Warner with pace and then teasing him with spin paid dividends for CSK.
In his IPL career so far, Warner averages 53.29 against spin and just 37.1 against pace. He is also dismissed a lot more frequently when facing pace than spin.
However, these are overall numbers and can be misleading. It indeed is, in Warner’s case, only it’s more profound in the last one year, especially at the beginning of an innings.
Since 2019, Warner averages a stunning 162 against spin in the first 10 overs, striking at a rate of 153.55 against spinners. But his approach is completely different against pace as he strikes at a rate of 118.94 against them while averaging nearly half as that against spinners, although it’s still impressive.
Chennai did little wrong against Warner last game and should stick by the same plan, if anything, today as well.
SRH vs CSK – The Shane Watson threat
There is a major threat posed by Shane Watson for Sunrisers Hyderabad, primarily because of the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Last match, Watson faced five balls from Bhuvneshwar, did not score off any of them and was dismissed off the final ball.
In all, Watson has faced Bhuvneshwar 88 times in the IPL and scored at less than run-a-ball while being dismissed four times.
Watson vs Bhuvneshwar
Runs – 78
Balls – 88
Dismissals – 4
SR – 88.64
Dot % – 59.09%
With Bhuvneshwar out of the picture, Watson has a good head-to-head against most SRH bowlers including the best scoring rate – 10.38 – against Rashid Khan (among batsmen to have faced 25 balls from him in the history of the league). He has never once been dismissed by Rashid in the 63 balls he has faced.
This is unusual for Watson as he isn’t the most secure against spinners turning the ball away from him. In his IPL career, three of Watson’s four worst averages against bowler types have come against such spinners – leg-spinners, left-arm orthodox spinners and mystery spinners (who can turn the ball away from him). He is also dismissed more often against these bowling types.
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However, with his strong head to head against Rashid, SRH will be reluctant to waste an over of the leg-spinner early on to get Watson, a ploy fraught with risk. Instead, they could rely on Khaleel Ahmed’s left-arm pace, another bowling type Watson hasn’t been too comfortable with.
Khaleel has been quite effective when swinging or nipping the ball back into the batsmen in this IPL. Five of his seven wickets have come when angling the ball back into the batsmen – inswing, nip backer or angling in seam up balls. Watson’s weakness against that is pretty well known and SRH might want to exploit that early.
Khaleel has been quite effective when swinging or nipping the ball back into the batsmen in this IPL. Five of his seven wickets have come when angling the ball back into the batsmen – inswing, nip backer or angling in seam up balls. Watson’s weakness against that is pretty well known and SRH might want to exploit that early.