IPL 2018: With Alex Hales, Sunrisers Hyderabad may have found a solution to opening combination conundrum

Sunrisers Hyderabad posted another brilliant victory on Saturday night when they beat Delhi Daredevils by seven wickets to take one more step towards the qualifiers. [caption id=“attachment_4457605” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Alex Hales and Shikhar Dhawan posted the highest opening stand for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2018. Sportzpics[/caption] Led by an impressive Kane Williamson, Hyderabad along with Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab have looked pretty solid thus far. Arguably, Hyderabad have the best bowling line-up in the competition. After the game between the Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore, MS Dhoni was heard saying how even half-way through the tournament, he could pick any of his bowlers who had taken responsibility in the death overs. For Hyderabad, the situation is completely different. This team is full of champion bowlers who are ready to bowl at any stage of the game and have proven their worth in the death overs on a number of occasions this tournament. Captain Williamson’s major concern remained the batting, especially at the top. But that worry seems to be fading away now. The maximum that Hyderabad have scored with the bat this season is 178, which came against Chennai Super Kings in a losing cause while chasing. They have batted first just thrice thus far this season, and their best score batting first has been a mere 151. And the main issue has been their top order. Hyderabad have tried different opening combinations at the top — three to be precise. After trying out Wriddhiman Saha-Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson-Shikhar Dhawan and Ricky Bhui-Kane Williamson at the top, things have started falling in place since the inclusion of Alex Hales. Hales has been opening with Dhawan for the last two matches and he has been successful on both occasions, scoring 45 in each of the innings. In fact, in Saturday’s game, Hales and Dhawan put on 76 runs for the first wicket, which is their best opening partnership this season. What this knock did was it stole the game away from the hands of Delhi early on in the innings. Hyderabad’s innings looked like it would get derailed in the middle overs. However, thanks to the brilliant start, Hyderabad never looked like they would let the game slip away from their hands. Hyderabad are sitting at the top of the table with almost all their bases covered. With other sides in the top four looking to work on many weaknesses — like Chennai pondering over bowling in the death overs and Kings XI Punjab looking to tighten the screws having lost two matches in a row — Hyderabad look guaranteed to get a top-two finish. Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s return on Saturday was another big relief for Williamson as he did not only return fully fit but also looked sharp while bowling. Rashid Khan’s form is peaking at the right time too as he played a major role in breaking up the dangerous-looking partnership between Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer on Saturday night. After getting a bashing against Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab earlier where he leaked 55 and 49 runs respectively, Rashid has improved his game by leaps and bounds. He has played four games after those matches where he was thrashed brutally and his worst figures since then has been 1 for 31 against Rajasthan Royals. In the other three games post the bashing, he has bowled with an economy rate of less than 6. With seven wins in nine games, Hyderabad’s biggest worry, ironically, will be maintaining their brilliant run at the moment. After all it is difficult to get at the top, but even more difficult to stay there. Previous IPLs have been witness to the over-confidence that can overcome the winning attitude of a side. Williamson will have to make sure that his side don’t get carried away. It is still a very long tournament and the party can be spoiled by anyone, anytime and anywhere.