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Consistent starts from David Warner and Shane Watson are critical to Australia’s chances of contending for the World Twenty20, the coach Mickey Arthur has said

Daniel Brettig12-Sep-2012Consistently rapid starts from David Warner and Shane Watson are critical to Australia’s chances of contending for the World Twenty20 title in Sri Lanka, the coach Mickey Arthur has said.Alongside Michael Hussey in the middle order, Warner and Watson represent the most potent batting force in the Australian line-up. The rest of the team does not possess quite the same combination of power and touch, a fact the selectors have tried to compensate for by choosing a long batting line-up, stretching as far as No. 8.Warner started the UAE tour in a muddle against quality spin, but grew in conviction and confidence over time. Watson has eased his way back after injury, but was striking the ball with all his former heft by the conclusion of the T20 series.As Australia prepared to depart Dubai for Colombo, Arthur acknowledged that the 111-run stand put together by Warner and Watson in that final game needed to be the rule rather than the exception over the next month. He also said that early wickets to the young pacemen Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins would set a similar tone for Australia in the field.”If you lose early wickets in this kind of format and you play a tentative brand you get yourself into trouble and that’s where we were in game one,” Arthur said. “It just shows the beginning of each of your innings are crucial.”If your openers get you off to a really good start, you get momentum and it sets you up for a score. And then if your opening bowlers start the same way and you take early wickets, you can put the opposition under some real pressure.”Four ODIs and three T20 matches in the UAE did not dissuade Australia from the view that their greatest bowling strength lies in their pace attack. The left-arm spin of Xavier Doherty was employed just twice in seven games, and Brad Hogg may have confirmed his place as the sole specialist spinner with a tidy spell in the final T20. The allrounder Glenn Maxwell and the part-timer David Hussey can be expected to bowl their off spinners here and there.”I’ve heard it so often said that pace doesn’t play a role in the sub-continent,” Arthur said. “Pace through the air plays a role anywhere. If the guys can deliver their variations, they’re going to pick up a lot of wickets.”The best way to stop the [scoring] rate in Twenty20 cricket is by taking wickets, so you need guys who do something a little bit different. So you want those x-factor players.”We’ve got the x-factor of a little bit of pace. We don’t possess a Saeed Ajmal, but we’ve got other guys who certainly compensate for that. Brad Hogg bowling through the middle overs has the ability like Saeed Ajmal has to take wickets.”Australia have warm-up fixtures against New Zealand and England on September 15 and 17 before taking on Ireland in their opening group match on September 19.

Ali de Winter, the Tasmania assistant coach, has been confirmed as the man to replace Craig McDermott as mentor to Australia’s bowlers, after beating Waqar Younis to the job

Daniel Brettig03-Aug-2012Ali de Winter, the Tasmania assistant coach, has been confirmed as the man to replace Craig McDermott as mentor to Australia’s bowlers, after beating Waqar Younis to the job.The choice of de Winter was likely from the moment Waqar confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that he had been knocked back for the position, with numerous other potential coaches under contract to other countries or provincial sides.Cricket Australia’s team performance manager Pat Howard, coach Mickey Arthur and captain Michael Clarke had taken a close look at de Winter’s ways of working during the recent ODI tour of the UK, on which de Winter impressed with his intelligence and affable nature despite the poor results of the team in losing 4-0 to England.Apart from working out how Australia’s bowlers managed to take only 13 wickets in four completed matches during that series, another of de Winter’s major objectives will be to help preserve Australia’s bowling resources. Injuries have become an unhappy recent tradition, its most recent example having Pat Cummins, James Pattinson and Ben Cutting all unable to take part in the current Australia A tour due to physical ailments.”We’re very pleased to have secured Ali’s services for the role from a wide field of international candidates,” Howard said. “Ali presented well on how he would manage the role on a day-to-day basis and has impressed through his work with bowlers such as Ben Hilfenhaus and Jackson Bird in Tasmania, and while he was the interim bowling coach on the recent tour to England.”We feel Ali has skills that will complement those of Mickey Arthur, Justin Langer and Steve Rixon and is well equipped to pick-up on Craig McDermott’s previous good work.”While de Winter’s ascension to the role may be defined as much by those who were not available for it as those who were – the likes of David Saker, Jason Gillespie, Damien Wright and Joe Dawes could not be considered due to their current employment – it should not be forgotten that he only narrowly lost out to McDermott last year.”I don’t think it is too complicated – it’s about having a strong work ethic, building good relationships and doing things like attacking the top of off stump in Test cricket,” de Winter said. “I am particularly excited to get this chance, particularly now as Australia has such a deep pool of fast bowling talent with 10-12 young bowlers featuring at the moment.”There is a great group of young bowlers coming through to complement the experienced names who are also performing well.”Like his fellow Tasmanian bowling coach Troy Cooley, de Winter was a modest first-class bowler, but set about learning how to get the best out of bowlers after his playing days ended. His work with Tasmania has been consistently strong since he became state bowling coach in 2007, resulting in a promotion to be Tim Coyle’s assistant while also coaching the Hobart Hurricanes in last summer’s BBL.He has been closely associated with the success of bowlers including Hilfenhaus, Luke Butterworth and more recently Bird, last summer’s Sheffield Shield player of the year and a member of the Australia A touring side currently in England.Hilfenhaus relied heavily on de Winter to correct flaws in his bowling action that emerged as he favoured an injured knee during 2009 and 2010, resulting in a wretched 2010-11 Ashes series. Reconfigured ahead of last summer, he emerged as one of the most incisive members of the bowling attack that routed India, and gave de Winter much of the credit for his resurgence.”He noticed my action had changed a little bit and realised what we needed to change to get back to where we wanted it. He definitely played a very big role in that,” Hilfenhaus said. “I personally find that he is very good technically to me, he understands the way I bowl pretty well, and he picks up things really easy.”Tactically he is very good as well, but for me personally it is more the technical side of things. I am sure he is having a look at everyone else’s actions as well and trying to find ways to help them improve. If I am doing things technically correct, that will help my chances at the other end, and some other people might be different.”Some people need to be told all these tactics about bowling and these sorts of things, someone like myself I need to be told to keep things technically correct to give myself the best chance to perform my skills. I rate Ali pretty highly and I’m sure once the other blokes have had a bit more to do with him, they’ll say exactly the same thing.”Other bowlers like Pattinson and Peter Siddle benefited greatly from McDermott’s simpler advice and guiding presence beyond the long on fence during Test matches, but by choosing de Winter, CA have decreed their view that he is the best man to carry on the Queenslander’s legacy.

Michael Yardy’s hundred helped marshal a strong Sussex response against the champions and was warmly recognised by the home crowd as he prepares to retire

Tim Wigmore at Hove23-Aug-2015
ScorecardMichael Yardy made his 22nd first-class hundred•Getty Images

The standing ovation that greeted Michael Yardy’s century oozed warmth that cannot be faked. It celebrated not merely his century against Yorkshire, timely as that was, but also the impact an admirable cricketer, who will retire this year, has had over 16 seasons of Championship cricket for Sussex.Many of those applauding would have remembered the state of Sussex in 2000, when Yardy made his first-class debut. The new age of two division Championship cricket began with Sussex the worst first-class county in the land, just as they had been in 1997. Yardy averaged just 9.14 in his four first-class games.No one would have envisaged what has happened to player or county since. Used to being caricatured as an amiable but rather lightweight club by the seaside, Sussex became the most formidable Championship team in the land. They finally ended their wait for the Championship crown in 2003, and added titles in 2006 and 2007 for good measure.If the leadership of Chris Adams, the batting nous of Murray Goodwin and above all the brilliance of Mushtaq Ahmed were the abiding memories of those triumphs, Yardy’s contribution to the last two victories was invaluable, albeit typically understated: 1646 first-class runs at 44.48 across the summers of 2006 and 2007.It was during 2006 that Yardy was first selected for England. He always retained the air of being an accidental international cricketer, his left-arm darts acting as an antidote to an era of mystery spin. But they were unremittingly accurate and, especially in Twenty20 cricket, fiendishly difficult to hit boundaries off. In the Caribbean in May 2010, Yardy became a critical part of the only ever English side to win a global ICC event.It was the most notable professional achievement of Yardy’s career. Yet it could not halt his outbreak of depression, which led him to pull out of an ODI in September 2010 and then fly home from Colombo three days before the quarter-final of the 2011 World Cup.Sussex, who he captained from 2009 to 2013, helped to sustain him through these challenging times. Often it was not easy: Yardy once had to leave the pitch midway through a game against Middlesex, sensing “danger” in the field. He still battles depression today.Just as Sussex are grateful for what he has given them, so Yardy is grateful for what the club have given him. When he kissed the club helmet after reaching his century, it did not feel premeditated or inauthentic. In an age of uncertainty over the county game, with a growing chasm between the quality of the cricket in the divisions, the age of the locally-reared, one club player may be nearing the close. This century, there have been few better than Yardy.It was a truth acknowledged by the Yorkshire players who shook his hand both after Yardy had reached his landmark and after he was dismissed playing across the line to Ryan Sidebottom for 124. The sight of Yardy, eschewing elegance for effectiveness, manipulating the ball into gaps and scything anything wide through point, has become familiar indeed to Yorkshire: this was his fifth first-class century against the champions.And how Yardy’s first hundred since May 2014 was worth savouring. Rain had delayed the start until 2pm, so the applause Yardy enjoyed as he removed his helmet and trudged off came from only a few hundred spectators. In its way that was apt: at its core Sussex remain a familial club, and few members of it have been more valued than Yardy. “It’s a very special club and as Sussex players, coaches and support staff we’ve got to keep it that tight club but also a competitive club that continually achieves,” he said.It was revealing that, asked about the highlights of his career, Yardy first cited being awarded his county cap. “To get the opportunity to play for your county and stay all your career at one county is very special. There’s been plenty of highs and a few lows but that’s the rollercoaster you’re on. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”Having begun his career with Sussex at the bottom of Division Two, Yardy’s resilience has gone a long way towards ensuring they remain in Division One, where they have spent all but one season since 2002.The docility of the Hove wicket highlights the value of a draw to Sussex. But, even so, to reach full batting points against an attack with Yorkshire’s quality and variety was quite a feat, and owed to much more than the efforts of Yardy. Oli Robinson played fluently for two hours as nightwatchman. And in the final session Ben Brown reverse-swept with such alacrity that he reached a century in just 84 balls.With crucial games against Worcestershire and Somerset looming, Sussex’s challenge is to ensure that they do not need to produce something similar in Yardy’s final Championship game, at Headingley next month.

With their campaign on the line, the sixth-wicket pair add 75 off just 32 balls to pull off a stunning win

Shashank Kishore26-Jan-2021Seventy runs needed off 45 balls. A top order that had dismantled attacks during the course of five successive wins in the group stage had collapsed in a heap. Tamil Nadu’s campaign, which had looked bright enough to go one better than their runners-up finish last year, was in doldrums.Himachal Pradesh’s bowlers were making a target of 136 seem more like 186. They were boisterous, having just dismissed Dinesh Karthik. Tamil Nadu were five down, with the last recognised pair at the crease. The decision to promote Sonu Yadav as a pinch hitter had backfired too, his run-a-ball 16 putting immense pressure on the lower order.Enter Shahrukh Khan, who joined Baba Aparajith, who until then had scratched his way to 23 off 33 balls. With the asking rate mounting and Himachal scenting victory, they held firm and then turned the game on its head, adding 75 off just 32 balls as Tamil Nadu cantered home with 13 balls to spare.The turning point of sorts was the third ball of the 14th over, bowled by the left-arm spinner Ayush Jamwal. Aparajith swatted it across the line, and the long-on fielder parried the ball over the ropes. With a reprieve behind him, Aparajith unleashed his strokes without fear. This rubbed off on the muscular Shahrukh too, his contribution an unbeaten 19-ball 40 laden with five fours and two sixes.With him, there are no half-measures. He’s reminiscent of Yusuf Pathan at the crease. Has a big presence, takes a giant stride and can give it a proper whack. He picks his spots and goes through. On Tuesday night, the leg-side was his favoured area, and it took some kind of power to clear the big boundaries quite comfortably. Shahrukh in league cricket is a destroyer, and if he continues to play the same way in top-flight cricket, it may not be long before IPL teams enter into a bidding war. He wasn’t picked at the 2019 December auction, but knocks like these could certain boost his chances.Meanwhile, Aparajith is a calming presence at the crease. Unhurried with his strokes, uncomplicated in his mind, he keeps the runs ticking and brings the big shots out only if the situation demands. He plays the kind of role S Badrinath did successfully at Chennai Super Kings, stem a collapse and hold the batting together if required. Throw in his handy off spin and he is a package teams often look out for.Here, he remained unbeaten on 52 off 45, having overcome pockets of frustration in the middle overs. To his credit, he carried on, trusted his game, and saw the game through. Prior to this game, Aparajith had just batted once in the tournament. But when the pressure was on, he dug deep to see his side through.Having watched the match-winning partnership nervously, Karthik, N Jagadeesan and C Hari Nishanth, who had done bulk of Tamil Nadu’s run-scoring in the league phase, exulted, roaring and punching the air, relieved at having a shot at making another final.Earlier in the evening, Karthik had opted to field presumably to give his bowlers a relatively dry ball to play with. They all responded superbly to restrict Himachal to 135 for 9. The pace duo of Sandeep Warrier and Yadav used contrasting methods to finish with combined figures of 5 for 46 off their eight overs.Warrier, who will fly off to join the India team as a net bowler on Thursday, hit the deck hard and relied on seam movement and bounce. Yadav used his slower variations to lull batsmen into big hits. In the middle overs, M Ashwin, the legspinner, and R Sai Kishore, the left-arm spinner, didn’t let the batsmen dictate terms.Rishi Dhawan was the only batsman who looked fluent and adjusted to the pace of the surface quickly, finishing with an unbeaten 26-ball 35 to give the innings a late push, after Abhimanyu Rana and Nitin Sharma wasted starts to fall just as Himachal looked to accelerate at different stages. And as well as Vaibhav Arora made the new ball talk, prising out three huge top-order wickets, Himachal just didn’t have enough runs to stop Tamil Nadu’s counter-punch.

He was a reliable and gutsy presence at the top of the order for Australia through the 1950s

Daniel Brettig11-Jan-2021Colin McDonald, Australia’s lone resister during Jim Laker’s world record 19-wicket haul in the 1956 Old Trafford Ashes Test, has died at the age of 92.In a lengthy and reliable stint at the top of the order for Australia for the best part of the 1950s and early 1960s, McDonald was a key part of the team in the era spanning the captaincies of Lindsay Hassett, Ian Johnson, Ian Craig and Richie Benaud, playing the last of his 47 Tests on the 1961 tour of England that saw the debut of his fellow Victorian opening batsman Bill Lawry.Batting with a range of partners, McDonald was at his best during the 1955 West Indies tour and the 1958-59 Ashes series at home, the scenes of four out of his five Test hundreds and plenty of cut shots and leg-side deflections with a technique that was dominated by the bottom hand.But McDonald’s most enduring efforts were arguably his run of scores in the Laker-led defeats of the Australians by both England and Surrey during the 1956 tour: scores of 89, 45, 32 and 89 out of team totals worth 259, 107, 84 and 205 represented high skill and no little determination against the turning, spitting ball.Related

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Asked in later years by Gideon Haigh about how he viewed the 1956 Ashes, McDonald offered an unvarnished view of the conditions and how they had been prepared. “England cheated: if by cheating you include the practice of preparing wickets to suit your own purpose,” he said in .”I mean, we wouldn’t have minded so much if the pitches had played true to character. But we’d played Lancashire at the start of the tour and it seamed like a normal Manchester wicket. Then the Test pitch was like Bondi Beach when it was dry and a mud-heap when it was wet. In truth, though, Australians were poor at playing off-spin on slow turning wickets. They tended to thrust at it with firm hands, where the way to do it was play side-on, close to your body, bat inside pad. They bowled well. We batted very badly.”McDonald’s traditional, “take the shine off the new ball” approach to opening served his country well as Benaud fashioned them into the world’s pre-eminent team, culminating in the memorable 1960-61 series against West Indies at home and then the retention of the Ashes in England in 1961.”Colin will forever be remembered as a legend of Victorian and Australian cricket,” Cricket Australia chair Earl Eddings said. “He was fearless against the fast bowlers and skilful when playing the spinners both in Australia and across tours of England, the Caribbean, South Africa, India and Pakistan.”Australian cricket is a better place for Colin’s many years of outstanding service at international and state level, as well as his club career with Melbourne University, Melbourne Cricket Club and Brighton. Our sincere condolences and best wishes go out to Colin’s family.”

Nic Maddinson started brightly but his dismissal was the first of four Victoria wickets to fall quickly

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Mar-2021Queensland made good use of the limited time available on a rain-reduced opening day against Victoria by taking four wickets at Allan Border Field.A delayed start and further stoppages meant just 21.4 overs in the day but Jack Wildermuth continued his impressive form with two wickets in an over while Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett claimed one each.Nic Maddinson had been quickly out of the blocks after Victoria had been put in, the first runs off the bat coming from a hooked six in the opening over and he followed that by flicking a full delivery from outside off over the midwicket fence in the 10th over. However, the ball after that second six he drove hard at Wildermuth and was held at third slip.Two balls later Wildermuth struck again when he pinned the in-form Peter Handscomb lbw by one which nipped back.Victoria’s batsmen aided in their demise as Matt Short played well away from his body to give a catch to Joe Burns at first slip and provide Neser with a wicket on his Sheffield Shield comeback. The same could be said of Jake Fraser-McGurk who was also snapped up by Burns to leave Victoria in trouble at 4 for 75.Rain arrived an over later and this time there was no further breaks leaving Marcus Harris and Seb Gotch needing to do a repair job on the second day.

Bereaved fast bowler says he’ll be playing now to fulfil his late father’s dearest wish

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Nov-2020Mohammed Siraj, who opted to stay on with the India squad in Australia after his father died recently in Hyderabad, said the words of his mother and captain Virat Kohli helped him make the decision.”In this situation, the way the whole team has supported me felt very nice,” Siraj told . “They ensured there were no difficulties. Virat said, ‘, don’t take tension. Stay strong because it was your dad’s dream that you do this (play for India), so do that. If you stay strong through this, it will be good for both you and your family.’ That was a very positive message for me, and I felt very nice.”Siraj was offered the option to fly back home by the BCCI, but given the quarantine rules in place, he would have had to spend 14 days in isolation if he had travelled home and then flown back to rejoin the team in Australia.”I spoke to my mom and she told me, ‘Son, everyone has to go some day. Today dad has gone, tomorrow I will have to go, you will also have to someday. Dad always wanted you to play for India, so you stay there, and do that. Perform well for India.'”The person who used to support me the most is gone, it’s a big loss for me,” Siraj said. “He always wanted me to play for India and bring glory to the country. So my mindset henceforth is just that I fulfil his dream. My dad is not there in this world, but I know that he’s always there with me. I’m going ahead thinking that.”Siraj is part of India’s Test squad, part of a strong pace attack that has Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini, with Ishant Sharma also a possibility to join the team.India coach Ravi Shastri said the fast-bowling attack was capable of delivering a second successive series victory in Australia if the batsmen put runs on the board.”We have a fabulous five,” Shastri was quoted as saying by . “Yadav has the experience. Saini is young and fast. Bumrah one of the best in business. Shami is raring to go. Siraj is an exciting prospect. You put up runs on the board and watch these fast bowlers hunt the opposition. They can beat Australia in their own den.”

Australia used the swing on offer under lights to claw their way back after a 104-run stand for the second wicket had threatened to take the game away

The Report by Daniel Brettig09-Nov-2017Stumps
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Ellyse Perry kept the pressure on England at the start•Getty Images

England held sunlight sway before Australia’s bowlers regathered vital ground under lights on day one of the inaugural day-night women’s Ashes Test at a vibrant North Sydney Oval.Winning a good toss under blue skies, England’s captain Heather Knight joined Tammy Beaumont in a considered 104-run stand for the second wicket. It seemed to place the visitors on the path to a major tally, in a match they must avoid losing or leave the Ashes in Australian hands, ahead of the final T20 leg of the multi-format series.The Australians persisted, however, aided by some terrific catching, and with the additional help of the extra swing to be gained at night, left only three wickets remaining for England to build further on their first innings when play resumes. The experienced Ellyse Perry and Jess Jonassen shared four wickets between them, with another two falling to the debutant Tahlia McGrath. Another playing her first Test, Amanda Wellington, claimed the key wicket of Beaumont.McGrath had been the first change to the Australian bowling attack after Perry and Megan Schutt shared the new ball, and she was soon able to coax a becalmed Lauren Winfield into driving airily, leaving the chance to be superbly snapped up by a diving Nicole Bolton at cover. That wicket was to be the only one for quite some time, and the shadows of the Oval’s venerable stands were growing long by the time Beaumont and Knight were separated.It was to be the other bowling debutant, Wellington, who found the right delivery with the last ball of the 53rd over, a delectable, looping leg break that drew Beaumont forward and then had her thrusting her hands at a delivery that bounced and turned just enough to take the edge to slip.If Knight was annoyed to have seen that partnership broken, she was mortified to be given lbw 16 runs later when trying to sweep Jonassen’s left-arm spin. Knight was well forward and the ball did not appear to be straightening enough to hit leg stump, but the wicket arrived at another vital juncture for Australia, bringing fresh players to the crease shortly before the lights came into use.Jonassen then struck again after the dinner break, this time pinning Nat Sciver on the back foot for a far more obvious lbw verdict, after which the second new ball reaped three further victims for the hosts. Georgia Elwiss chanced a hook and watched the top edge safely pouched by Schutt, Sarah Taylor stopped her shot and offered a return catch to a juggling Perry, and Katherine Brunt chased a wide delivery from McGrath and was well taken by Jonassen.Wellington returned for the night’s final over, and though unable to find the right variation for another wicket, the Australians walked off happy with their work. England, by contrast, rued a missed opportunity.

Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid have denied media reports of a rift in the Indian team over MS Dhoni’s leadership and a lack of unity when under pressure

Sidharth Monga in Perth11-Jan-2012Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid have denied media reports of a rift in the Indian team over MS Dhoni’s leadership and a lack of unity when under pressure. Reports suggested the team was split over Dhoni’s captaincy style and even suggested that one group wanted Sehwag, the vice-captain, to take charge.The Indian team is under gag orders that bar the players from speaking to the press outside the designated media interactions but Sehwag responded directly to the allegations of his own role, which appeared in Australian papers on Tuesday.”When teams start losing then these kind of things come, but there is nothing true in that,” Sehwag told the . “We are playing as a team, and we are fine. I can’t talk about anything else because there are rules, but you asked me about this and I can say it is rubbish. We are a unit, and we are carrying on for the next Test.”Dravid, who spoke at Wednesday’s press conference, echoed the sentiment. “When you are down 2-0, all these things happen,” he said. “Suddenly there’s all sort of stuff floating around. There is absolutely no truth to any of these things. Like I said, the spirit in the team is pretty good.”Sunil Gavaskar, the former India captain, also said before the Sydney Test that he felt Dhoni was not getting the on-field backing of his senior players. “Captains need help because they are under pressure every time,” he said on NDTV. “They need a vice-captain or a senior player who is going to come up at regular intervals and say, look, maybe try something different. And I don’t think Dhoni is getting that … Everybody is in their own cocoon, and that’s where Dhoni needs a lot more interaction from the group itself.”More recent was Brad Haddin’s observation that the Indian players “can turn on each other”. When Haddin’s team-mate and former captain Ricky Ponting was asked on Tuesday if he had actually seen anything on the field that might have led Haddin to feel that way, he said: “I haven’t seen that as such. And I haven’t really been looking for it. Whenever I have been batting, I have been trying to get myself into a zone, and try to focus on the next ball I have to face. Once again, I don’t think any of us has worried or focussed too much about what the Indian team has been doing.”

Both teams have made a habit of losing from strong positions, and that’s reflected in the points table

Karthik Krishnaswamy21-Oct-20208:25

Is Stokes at the top working for Royals? Should Warner continue in the middle order?

Big picture

It’s that time of the season. No team is as yet out of the playoffs race, at least in theory, but it might take just a result or two for some of them to slip out of contention. The “some of them” subset presently includes the Rajasthan Royals, who have four wins from ten games, and the Sunrisers Hyderabad, who have three wins from nine.ALSO READ: Fantasy-team suggestions for Royals vs SunrisersThese two teams are closely matched in many ways, one of them being a tendency to lose matches they should win. The Sunrisers suffered one such heartbreak – Super Over and all – in their last match against the Kolkata Knight Riders, while the Royals recently had a winning position snatched away by AB de Villiers and another – they needed 39 off 30 balls, with five wickets in hand – squandered by their own batsmen.Those chances are lost. Whatever last chances remain cannot go ungrabbed.

In the news

Kane Williamson injured his adductor muscle during the Sunrisers’ last match against the Kolkata Knight Riders. It’s not yet clear if he’s fully recovered.

What’s at stake

Sunrisers Hyderabad Played 9, Won 3, Lost 6The Sunrisers have five games left and have a positive net run rate. They can afford to lose one more game but with the Royals and Kings XI Punjab picking up momentum, the Sunrisers would not want to be left behind. A win against the Royals would put them in fifth place with a healthy net run rate. The Sunrisers still have games against the top three teams remaining and would not want to leave it too late.Sunrisers Hyderabad have decent alternatives if Kane Williamson isn’t fit•BCCI

Rajasthan Royals Played 10, Won 4, Lost 6By beating the Chennai Super Kings convincingly, the Royals have put themselves in a position to make the playoffs. However, like most of the lower-ranked teams they need to win three out of their next four games. Beating the Sunrisers will take them to 10 points. The Royals are also behind in terms of net run rate (-0.591) and would need to win convincingly in at least two of their next four games to challenge the likes of the Sunrisers and Kings XI if it comes down to that number. Three of the next four matches for the Royals are against teams they are competing with for a playoff spot and every win for the Royals will pull the others down.

Previous meeting

At the same ground, on October 11, the Sunrisers posted a below-par 158 despite losing just four wickets, but seemed poised to win when the Royals slipped to 78 for 5 in their chase. Riyan Parag and Rahul Tewatia, however, took the game away with an unbroken sixth-wicket stand of 85 from 47 balls, finishing it with a ball to spare.

Likely XIs

Rajasthan Royals: 1 Ben Stokes, 2 Robin Uthappa, 3 Sanju Samson (wk), 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Jos Buttler, 6 Rahul Tewatia, 7 Riyan Parag, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Shreyas Gopal, 10 Ankit Rajpoot/Jaydev Unadkat, 11 Kartik TyagiSunrisers Hyderabad: 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Kane Williamson/Mohammad Nabi/Fabian Allen/Jason Holder, 5 Priyam Garg, 6 Vijay Shankar, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Sandeep Sharma, 10 Basil Thampi/Khaleel Ahmed, 11 T NatarajanRashid Khan and Jofra Archer – key to the bowling plans of their respective sides•BCCI

Strategy punt

• Unable to run normally as a result of his injury, Williamson opened the batting against the Knight Riders in a bid to make use of the powerplay field restrictions and hit as many boundaries as possible. He did just that while scoring 29 off 19 and giving the Sunrisers a start that should have brought them a comfortable win. Though the result didn’t materialise, the Sunrisers could look to continue that approach, possibly with Williamson remaining at the top of the order to try and exploit the field restrictions. David Warner, who hasn’t been in the best ball-striking form of late, is adept at placing the ball into gaps and sprinting twos – if he stays in the middle order, he could use the middle-overs fields and large outfield in Dubai to his advantage while getting set.
• Williamson opening could also help the Sunrisers combat Jofra Archer, who has bowled 27 balls to Warner in T20 cricket and dismissed him three times while only conceding 23 runs. Williamson, on the other hand, has scored 27 runs off 15 balls from Archer, without being dismissed.
• If Williamson isn’t fit, the obvious swap for him would be Mohammad Nabi. The Afghanistan allrounder has only played one game this season, for no fault of his, and would probably be a regular at some other franchises. The Royals, though, only have two left-handers in their top seven in Ben Stokes and Tewatia, and may not therefore be the best match-up for Nabi’s offspin. This could perhaps prompt the Sunrisers to pick Fabian Allen instead. In addition to his explosive lower-order hitting (his overall T20 strike rate is 164.89), Allen bowls left-arm spin (economy rate 7.43) and is a gun fielder.
• Of all batsmen to have faced at least 40 balls this season, Archer (193.61) has the second-best strike rate behind Kieron Pollard (200.00). He’s only faced 47 balls through the tournament, though, so the Royals could look to bat him a little higher than they usually do, especially since he’s hit nine of those 47 balls for sixes. They don’t have to play him in the top six, necessarily, but No. 7 – especially if they are batting first – might be a good place for him, with someone like Parag or Tewatia to follow.

Stats that matter

• The Sunrisers haven’t won a single game while chasing this season, losing on all four occasions when they have bowled first.
• Since starting his season with two fifties on the trot, Sanju Samson has only scored 77 runs in eight innings, at an average of 9.6. He’ll be facing his favourite opponents, though. In 15 matches against the Sunrisers, he has 449 runs at an average of 40.81, including an unbeaten 102 – one of two hundreds he’s made in the IPL overall – last year.
• Of all bowlers who have sent down at least 100 balls across the two phases this season, Archer has the best economy rate over the powerplay and middle overs (4.66), just ahead of Rashid Khan (5.35).
• Ankit Rajpoot is one wicket short of 100 in T20s.
• Steven Smith is one six short of 100 in T20s.