New beginnings in Hyderabad

Match facts

Friday, April 5, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT) 

Yuvraj Singh will be playing in the IPL after nearly two years

After the top two teams of last year’s points table kicked-off the carnival on Wednesday, the bottom two will meet in Hyderabad on Friday. While the host city has a new team – Sunrisers Hyderabad – led by the same captain Kumar Sangakkara, Pune Warriors have a new captain – Angelo Mathews – after Michael Clarke was ruled out of the entire season.

 

Sunrisers will feel the absence of an in-from Shikhar Dhawan, who was Deccan Chargers’ leading run-scorer last season. After retaining 20 players from the Chargers, Sunrisers revamped their leadership, bringing together Tom Moody and Sangakkara, who had worked together as coach and captain for Sri Lanka. They also have overseas pace options in Dale Steyn and Clint McKay, and allrounders Darren Sammy and Thisara Perera, but only Steyn picks himself.

 

Warriors had an unsettled team last year and the addition of Mathews, Ajantha Mendis, Ross Taylor, Abhishek Nayar, and the return of Yuvraj Singh, will bolster their prospects. Steve Smith is more a batsman than allrounder these days and Warriors will be tempted to include Clarke’s replacement, Aaron Finch, who scored two fifties and a hundred against England Lions recently. With Marlon Samuels, Luke Wright, Wayne Parnell also in the squad, a right balance might not be easy to find.

 

 

Players to watch

Kumar Sangakkara scored 48, 63, 139, 55, 142, 105 and 58 in the recent ODIs and Tests against Bangladesh. He will now have to score in the shortest format against compatriots Ajantha Mendis and Mathews, among others. His captaincy will also be under the spotlight, because he led Chargers to only four wins last season.

 

Yuvraj Singh scored consecutive fifties in the Deodhar Trophy and took 3 for 39 and 3 for 19 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, so his recent form has been promising. With captaincy off his shoulders, and having missed all of 2012, he will want to score more than the two fifties he scored in 2011.

 

 

Stats and trivia

• Both Sunrisers and Warriors won only four out of their 16 matches last season
• Warriors did not have a single bowler in the top-20 wicket-takers last season. Ashish Nehra, now with Delhi Daredevils, took 11 wickets for them and was in 26th place. Their leading run-scorer, Robin Uthappa, was 12th with 405 runs.

 

 

 

Quotes

“I am not looking far ahead. I am not looking at the semi-finals or anything like that. I just want to concentrate on every game, and on what we do in every game.”
Allan Donald, the Warriors coach.

 

“We have got replacements who are probably good enough to do the job and we are excited to give that opportunity to a younger guy.”
Sunrisers captain Kumar Sangakkara believes his team has replacements for injured players, such as Shikhar Dhawan.

 

Dhawan’s absence chance for others – Sangakkara

 

A new beginning: After a poor season in 2012, Kumar Sangakkara is leading the Hyderabad team under a new umbrella  Kumar Sangakkara, the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain, said that while the team would be affected by the absence of Shikhar Dhawan, his injury would offer a younger player a chance to do. Dhawan fractured his finger while fielding in the third Test against Australia in March.

Kumar Sangakkara, the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain, said that while the team would be affected by the absence of Shikhar Dhawan, his injury would offer a younger player a chance to do. Dhawan fractured his finger while fielding in the third Test against Australia in March.

“I think it is a huge loss,” Sangakkara said. “I watched him scoring that magnificent century for India against Australia in his debut Test. But, we have replacements who are probably good enough to do the job and we are excited to give that opportunity to a younger guy.”

In the absence of Dhawan, Parthiv Patel, the former India wicketkeeper, is likely to shoulder the responsibility of opening the innings along with Sangakkara. “If you look at my career, I batted in almost every place. I am ready for any challenge,” Patel said.

Sangakkara also said their first match against Pune Warriors would help the new team understand where it stands and use it as a reference point for further improvement.

 

“We just want to keep things as simple as possible, play some good cricket, be very competitive in this tournament and then once we played the first match, then we will understand more, probably better, where we are at the moment and build from there again,” he said.

 

Amit Mishra, the team’s legspinner, who struggled with his fitness during the last IPL, was also upbeat about the new season. “In the last edition I rushed into the IPL after an injury. I was not fully fit. This time I come into the IPL with decent performances in domestic cricket. Being one of the top five bowlers in the IPL gives me great pleasure.”

Hyderabad set to debut in new avatar

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD V PUNE WARRIORS, IPL 2013, HYDERABAD

 

Match facts

Friday, April 5, 2013
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)

Big Picture

After the top two teams of last year’s points table kicked-off the carnival on Wednesday, the bottom two will meet in Hyderabad on Friday. While the host city has a new team – Sunrisers Hyderabad – led by the same captain Kumar Sangakkara, Pune Warriors have a new captain – Angelo Mathews – after Michael Clarke was ruled out of the entire season.

Sunrisers will feel the absence of an in-from Shikhar Dhawan, who was Deccan Chargers’ leading run-scorer last season. After retaining 20 players from the Chargers, Sunrisers revamped their leadership, bringing together Tom Moody and Sangakkara, who had worked together as coach and captain for Sri Lanka. They also have overseas pace options in Dale Steyn and Clint McKay, and allrounders Darren Sammy and Thisara Perera, but only Steyn picks himself.

Warriors had an unsettled team last year and the addition Ajantha Mendis, Ross Taylor, Abhishek Nayar, and the return of Yuvraj Singh, will bolster their prospects. Steve Smith is more a batsman than allrounder these days and Warriors will be tempted to include Clarke’s replacement, Aaron Finch, who scored two fifties and a hundred against England Lions recently. With Marlon Samuels, Luke Wright, Wayne Parnell also in the squad, a right balance might not be easy to find.

Players to watch

Kumar Sangakkara scored 48, 63, 139, 55, 142, 105 and 58 in the recent ODIs and Tests against Bangladesh. He will now have to score in the shortest format against compatriots Ajantha Mendis and Mathews, among others. His captaincy will also be under the spotlight, because he led Chargers to only four wins last season.

Yuvraj Singh scored consecutive fifties in the Deodhar Trophy and took 3 for 39 and 3 for 19 in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, so his recent form has promised. With captaincy off his shoulders, and having missed all of 2012, he will want to score more than the two fifties he scored in 2011.

Stats and trivia

• Warriors won only four out of their 16 matches last season
• Warriors did not have a single bowler in the top-20 wicket-takers last season. Ashish Nehra, now with Delhi Daredevils, took 11 wickets for them and was in 26th place. Their leading run-scorer, Robin Uthappa, was 12th with 405 runs.

Quotes

“I am not looking far ahead. I am not looking at the semi-finals or anything like that. I just want to concentrate on every game, and on what we do in every game.”
Allan Donald, the Warriors coach.

“We have got replacements who are probably good enough to do the job and we are excited to give that opportunity to a younger guy.”
Sunrisers captain Kumar Sangakkara believes his team has replacements for injured players, such as Shikhar Dhawan.

A new beginning for Hyderabad

 

	Shikhar Dhawan will be batting with renewed confidence after a stellar Test debut

 

Big Picture

The IPL is a two-month long exercise but the controversies and issues it has thrown up in recent years have kept it in the news long after the last ball of each season has been bowled. The financial woes of Deccan Chargers was one such matter and it led to the franchise’s termination by the BCCI, followed by its acquisition for US$79.4 million by the Chennai-based Sun TV network. The new owners of what is now the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise retained 20 players from the original squad, but there have been some changes since. 

The team had a forgettable season in 2012, finishing second from the bottom. Among the attempts made by its new owners to reverse those fortunes is introducing changes to the support staff. Tom Moody has been appointed coach, Waqar Younis has been roped in as a bowling consultant, Simon Helmot was named Moody’s deputy, and Kris Srikkanth and VVS Laxman drafted in as team mentors.

Kumar Sangakkara has been retained as captain, though he won’t play the team’s match(es) in Chennai. There are few specialist batsmen in the squad, which relies primarily on allrounders – those of the bowling variety. Sunrisers, at the auction this year, bought Darren Sammy, Thisara Perera, and Nathan McCullum. They also strengthened their attack with the purchase of medium-pacer Clint McKay and have replaced Darren Bravo with South Africa opener Quinton de Kock.

Chargers managed to save face last year by winning their last two league games after beginning the season horribly, losing five in a row. Theirs was an all-round failure, with bowlers failing to defend sizeable targets when their batsmen clicked, and the batsmen not helping matters with their inconsistency when the bowling did better. Some of their overseas signings this time should boost the middle order and add more depth to the bowling attack.

 

Key players

Shikhar Dhawan was the team’s highest run-getter last year and remains a crucial player in the XI, though he’ll miss the first two weeks of the tournament due to a hand injury he suffered during the Test series against Australia. Dhawan has de Kock, Parthiv Patel, and Sangakkara as potential opening partners, and has plenty of confidence coming in to this IPL after a successful domestic season and a whirlwind century on Test debut in Mohali. 

Dale Steyn is the Sunrisers’ biggest bowling asset, but equally important will be Sangakkara’s leadership. He’s playing under a new group of owners, though with a familiar face in coach Moody, who formerly coached Sri Lanka. Sangakkara had a poor IPL last year, averaging 18.18 in 12 games but has had an excellent run this year with a productive series against Bangladesh. If his own form was a contributing factor to the batting failures last year, he has a team with a group of players – Sammy, Steyn, Dhawan and himself – with recent successes that should be able to drive them to prevent the kind of beginning they had last season.

 

Big names in

Thisara Perera: Sunrisers spent US$675,000 on Perera, a reliable seamer with good variations and big-hitting batsman in the middle order. Perera has a strong reputation for the skills he brings, and his team might be faced with a tough choice between picking him and Sammy in the playing XI given the overseas quota, and Sangakkara and Steyn as likely starters. 

 

Big names out

Dan Christian was bought for a whopping US$900,000 by Chargers in 2011, but that didn’t seem to have paid dividends last year. Christian played less than half of his team’s matchers and proved expensive with the ball. He was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for this season, for US$100,000. 

 

Below the radar

Amit Mishra, the legspinner, has not played for India since August 2011 but has done well for Haryana of late. In the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 tournament, he picked up 10 wickets in five games at 10.80, conceding just six an over. Together with McCullum, he is one of two specialist spinners likely to get a full spell and has warmed up well for the IPL this season. 

 

Availability

Sangakkara and Perera will miss the Sunrisers’ game in Chennai on April 25. Should Sunrisers qualify for the knockouts, it remains to be seen if the current Tamil Nadu government makes an exception for those matches vis-à-vis the participation of Sri Lankan players. There is a possibility McCullum might miss the latter stages of the tournament, as New Zealand are scheduled to tour England then, with the first Test beginning on May 16.

Injured Dhawan in doubt for opening IPL games

 

 

Shikhar Dhawan is certain to miss the opening game of Sunrisers Hyderabad on April 5

Shikhar Dhawan is likely to miss at least the opening match for Sunrisers Hyderabad, as he recovers from his hand injury sustained while fielding during the recent Mohali Test against Australia. Dhawan fractured his left hand and was ruled out for six weeks, keeping him out of the fourth Test in Delhi. Sunrisers play their first game on April 5 against Pune Warriors.

“Shikhar Dhawan at this stage will not be available for the first game. We are obviously working closely with the BCCI and the medical team with regard to his progress,” Sunrisers coach Tom Moody said before the team’s first official training session in Hyderabad.

“We are hoping that within a couple of weeks he will be available to join the team.”

Dhawan had made history in Mohali, his 187 being the fastest by a debutant in Tests. His knock opened India’s chances for pushing for a win in a high-scoring game, despite the opening day being washed out. He hurt his hand on the fourth day of the Test but wasn’t required to bat during the second innings.

Dhawan was the leading run-scorer for Deccan Chargers – as it was previously known before the ownership changed – in the 2012 season, scoring 569 runs with five fifties. He was one of the few positives in what was a forgettable campaign for the team, which finished second from last.