IPL 2026: Sunrisers Hyderabad Set to Face Unbeaten Rajasthan Royals

Hyderabad. In the 21st match of the 19th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Sunrisers Hyderabad will face Rajasthan Royals today. The match will begin at 7:45 PM at Hyderabad's home ground, the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.

This will be the first encounter between Hyderabad and Rajasthan this season. For both teams, today's match will be their fifth of the season. Rajasthan Royals have not lost a single game so far this season. 

Having won 4 consecutive matches, the team sits at the top of the points table. On the other hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad has managed to win only 1 out of 4 matches and has suffered defeat in 3.

• Hyderabad leads in head-to-head

Looking at the head-to-head statistics, Hyderabad is ahead. A total of 21 IPL matches have been played between these two teams so far. Out of these, Hyderabad has won 12 matches and Rajasthan has won 9. A total of 6 matches have been played between the two teams at Hyderabad's home ground, with Hyderabad winning 5 and Rajasthan winning only 1. 

Rajasthan's last victory against Hyderabad came in the 2023 season. Since then, Hyderabad has been victorious in all four matches played.

• Klaasen is the top scorer for Hyderabad

Some players have performed exceptionally well for Hyderabad this season. In batting, Heinrich Klaasen has scored 184 runs in 4 matches, including 2 half-centuries. Klaasen is second on the list of highest run-scorers this season. Similarly, in bowling, Harsh Dubey has taken 5 wickets in 4 matches.

• Rajasthan players hold the Orange and Purple Caps

So far this season, both the Orange and Purple caps are held by Rajasthan players. Vaibhav Suryavanshi has performed brilliantly, scoring 200 runs in 4 matches. He has hit 2 half-centuries and has a strike rate of 266.66, which has proven to be a major strength for the team. In bowling, Ravi Bishnoi has taken 9 wickets in 4 matches.

Players in the spotlight 

• Heinrich Klaasen

Heinrich Klaasen is the second-highest run-scorer in this IPL. His half-century against Kolkata remains his best innings in this tournament so far. However, looking at his other innings, despite scoring runs, there seems to be a deep problem in his batting: 31 runs off 22 balls, 62 runs off 41 balls, and 39 runs off 33 balls. 

Hyderabad has lost all three of these matches. He cannot be blamed for the team's poor bowling, but his strike rate this season is only 140.45, which is significantly lower compared to the previous season (172.69). He struggled to time the ball in the death overs against Punjab. In Monday's match, he will try to score quickly and add an extra 15-20 runs to the team's total.

• Ravi Bishnoi

Ravi Bishnoi joined his new team, Rajasthan Royals, after having the worst season of his career last year. Last season, he conceded runs at a rate of 10.83 per over and his average was 44.55. 

However, this time, with better control over line and length and fewer bad balls, his economy has dropped to 8.76 and his average to 12.66. The Hyderabad pitch is known for its true pace and bounce, which will set up an interesting scenario for Bishnoi's main weapon, the 'fast googly'.

Pitch Report

The pitch at Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium is batting-friendly. Bowlers also get some assistance here. High-scoring games are often seen at this venue. 

A total of 84 IPL matches have been played at this stadium so far, out of which 35 matches have been won by the team batting first, while 48 matches have been won by the chasing team.

• Weather conditions

The weather in Hyderabad on April 13 will be very hot. The temperature on the day of the match is expected to be between 26 and 40 degrees Celsius. There is no chance of rain on this day.

Probable Playing-12 for both teams

• Sunrisers Hyderabad: Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (Captain/Wicketkeeper), Heinrich Klaasen, Salil Arora, Aniket Verma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Shivang Kumar, Harshal Patel, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Malinga. Impact Player- Vishnu Vinod.

• Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel (Wicketkeeper), Riyan Parag (Captain), Shimron Hetmyer, Donovan Ferreira, Ravindra Jadeja, Jofra Archer, Nandre Burger, Brijesh Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, Ravi Bishnoi. Impact Player- Vaibhav Suryavanshi.

Statistics and interesting facts

• In this tournament so far, Hyderabad's middle order (numbers 4 to 7) has scored the most runs with 376. However, in terms of strike rate (141.35), they are in seventh place among all ten teams, which highlights their inability to accelerate the game.
• Hyderabad's Head-Abhishek and Rajasthan's Suryavanshi-Jaiswal are the second and third fastest-scoring opening pairs of this season, respectively. They have scored runs at a rate of 13 and 12.5 respectively while at the crease together.
• Suryavanshi has the opportunity to equal the old record for the fastest 1000 runs in men's T20 cricket. He has scored 901 runs in 22 innings. This record stands at 23 innings, held by Brad Hodge and Shaun Marsh. Hodge was the first player to complete 1000 runs in T20s. Since then, among the 1061 other players who have scored 1000 T20 runs, only Shaun Marsh has achieved this feat in 23 innings.