Can Royals return to winning ways against Sunrisers?

Skipper Sanju Samson will look for support from his batsmen as Rajasthan Royals aim to return to winning ways against laggards Sunrisers Hyderabad in Dubai on Monday and keep their play-offs hopes alive in the Indian Premier League.

Royals are currently placed seventh in the standings with eight points from nine games, while SRH are already out of contention following just one victory and eight reverses.

In their first two matches of the IPL second leg, Royals edged past Punjab Kings by two runs in a thriller, before going down by 33 runs against table toppers Delhi Capitals on Saturday.

Sunrisers, on the other hand, lost both their games in the UAE leg so far -- against Delhi and Punjab.

Royals will definitely fancy their changes against the struggling Sunrisers, having beaten them in the first leg in India by 55 runs earlier this year.

In their game against Delhi, the Royals bowling unit continued its impressive show, restricting the opponents to 154 for six, but the batsmen failed to deliver with Samson playing the lone hand with 70 not out.

The likes of young Yashasvi Jaiswal and Mahipal Lomror, who starred with the bat against Punjab, and Liam Livingstone and David Miller all failed to stitch a partnership with Samson.  

All-rounders Riyan Parag and Rahul Tewatia didn't help their cause either.

But Royals will take a lot of confidence from the performance of their bowlers on the slow pitches of UAE.

The pace trio of Mustafizur Rahman, young Kartik Tyagi and Chetan Saklariya have been impressive with the ball, while spinners South African Tabrez Shamsi and Tewatia have kept things quiet in the middle.

Sunrisers have suffered a disastrous campaign this season, losing eight out of their nine games in IPL 2021 to be out of the running of a place in the play-offs.

For Kane Williamson-led SRH, it will be all about enjoying the remaining few games and hoping to finish with a few consolation wins.

With Johnny Bairstow, their season's leading run-getter, pulling out and Australian opener David Warner in poor form, Sunrisers have struggled with the bat.
 
The likes of Williamson, Manish Pandey, Wriddhiman Saha, Kedar Jadhav and Abdul Samad also failed to provide the much-needed impetus.

Their bowling is over reliant on spin sensation Rashid Khan as it has been a mediocre outing this season for the likes of Khaleel Ahmed, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

All-rounder Jason Holder's good showing with both bat and ball against Punjab has been the only positive for Sunrisers in the IPL leg so far.

Teams:

Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson (captain), Liam Livingstone, Evin Lewis, David Miller, Chris Morris, Oshane Thomas, Mustafizur Rahaman, Tabraiz Shamsi, Glenn Phillips, Chetan Sakariya, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Akash Singh, Anuj Rawat, KC Cariappa, Yashashvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dube, Shreyas Gopal, Kartik Tyagi, Mayank Markande, Jaydev Unadkat, Kuldip Yadav, Mahipal Lomror.

Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson (captain), David Warner, Manish Pandey, Sherfane Rutherford, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Rashid Khan, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Abhishek Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Siddharth Kaul, Khaleel Ahmed, Thangarasu Natarajan, Basil Thampi, Sandeep Sharma, Shahbaz Nadeem, Abdul Samad, J Suchith, Jason Holder, Virat Singh, Priyam Garg, Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, Jason Roy.

Match starts at 7.30pm IST.